Malkovich
by Aberlemno
Summary: Itakura ends up getting dragged along by Margarete to Wuhan with the group. . . . It almost makes sense if you read it.
1. Part One: Army Mood

  
Author Note Number Two (5/5/03): I'll leave the antique author note below on for the hell of it. But this chapter will be minorly rewritten and lyrics added to the rest of the chapters. All chapters up to Coffee With Bullet will be rewritten but only to correct spelling, formatting and grammar. As my beta reader said when I started this fic, I should have stuck to humour. There will be no notable plot changes. However if you wanna read the start of each chapter again then you can see why I chose to name the chapter after the particular song I did choose: there will be lyric quotes except for the following chapters:  
  
Army Mood: This is from the Shadow Hearts soundtrack  
  
Trying Your Luck: I am REALLY stuck finding lyrics. So I picked a title that suited instead. The song is by The Strokes, by the way.  
  
Coffee With Bullet: This is also from the SH soundtrack.  
  
  
These lyrics are randomly collected from browsing everyone I know's CD collection. They haven't all been released as singles or whatever, but that is what the lyric quotes are for.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Shadow Hearts because when I turned up at the Midway office and threatened to fusion into Death Emperor unless they handed over the rights they sent me for a holiday in this lovely little room with padded walls.  
  
  
Author note: This is my second Shadow hearts fic !  
  
Roger Bacon, reading over Miffy's shoulder: And I'm not even in it! Or the last one!  
  
Miffy: Hey! Who said you could come out of your box? Get back in there and do my maths homework!  
  
Bacon: This is no way to treat the legendary alchemist  
  
Miffy: Hey, you're right! Do my chemistry homework! Anyway, about the ficthe events reflected in this work do not reflect the plot of the game completely. But that's the point of it being a FIC, right? Shadow Hearts didn't even happen REALLY, you know  
  
Bacon: If it didn't happen, what am I doing here?  
  
Miffy: You're a figment of my crazed imagination!  
  
Bacon: OH NO!!! I told Midway I wasn't doing ANY more "crazed imagination" jobs since the ***shudders** * Ketchup Incident  
  
Miffy: (grins) What Ketchup Incident?  
  
Bacon: I don't like to talk about it and you should remember, it was your fault  
  
Miffy:oh yeah*giggles * Anyway, just to let you know that I do not always mean to make Margarete the bitch, but it just kinda happensshe throws no bricks this time thoughand that I hope you will forgive me for twisting certain facts and making up the rest of them. I think I've talked enough crap, on with the fic which I can this time guarantee free from the random lunacy of my last two!  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Part One, Chapter One: Army Mood  
  
A woman is standing in a long, well lit corridor with white-painted walls. She has long blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail and wears a white coat which reaches her knees over a short blue skirt. She walks up to a heavy wooden office door with a frosted glass panel and knocks loudly. A brisk, clear voice calls Enter.' She pushes the door inwards. It swings smoothly on its well oiled hinges.   
  
The room she enters is spacious and mostly bare, save some maps on the wall, a large window and an immaculate desk. The Japanese flag adorns the wall behind. This is the Japanese Army base at Kawagoe, a small town near enough to Tokyo to be useful to the army, yet still out of the way. The base is backed by the Kanto-Sanchi mountains, which appear black and foreboding against the sunset sky.  
  
  
Inside the office the woman draws her eyes away from the window.  
  
  
Agent Malkovich,' says the owner of the brisk clear voice. She is another woman, with clipped short brown hair. She wears a grey suit jacket and sits at the desk, a neat pile of papers in front of her. She shuffles the papers.  
  
  
Yeah, Kawashima?' the blonde woman asks, pulling up a chair to the desk, sitting down and crossing her legs. Kawashima looks disapprovingly at her.  
  
Agent Malkovich,' she says again, this time sternly, like a teacher addressing a disobedient pupil. Kawashima was used to people treating her with utmost respect. She didn't like Malkovich much, but she was good at her job, and in this precarious time, that was what mattered. The briefings for your latest mission, your most important to date. You have learnt of the plans of the adept Dehuai, I presume?' However this was a statement, not a question, and she continues. And no doubt you are also aware of the Japanese Army's attempt to . . .' She searches for the right word. '. . . eliminate him.'  
  
Yeah, but. . . 'Malkovich begins. Kawashima swiftly shoots a silencing look.  
  
Now I don't know if you have been informed of the events on the Changchun-Fengtian express train last night-'  
  
Well of course, even the cleaners know all about THAT,' says Malkovich disparagingly.   
  
Kawashima is extremely annoyed at having her secret information leaked to such an extent. For one thing, she felt it rather took away her upper hand in the conversation.  
  
Well,' she says, trying to regain her lost footing. The girl involved-'  
  
- Alice Eliott,' Malkovich interrupts. Kawashima bristles. Malkovich is only trying to goad her into losing her temper. She does it every time they end up together on a mission.  
  
Perhaps you'd like to tell me what your mission is, since you're so clever,' snaps Kawashima, sounding even more like an angry teacher. Malkovich smiles slightly and leans back in her chair.  
  
I bet I could make a pretty good guess.'  
  
Kawashima grits her teeth. The worst part is, she'd probably be right.  
  
Well,' she says quickly, before Malkovich can turn the advantage around completely.   
  
We have inside information that Eliott is heading for Fengtian with intent of defeating Dehuai. She is also rumoured to be travelling with a -'  
  
  
Young man. I heard THAT from the janitor this morning.' Malkovich informs her smugly. Kawashima snorts.  
  
I can easily get someone else to work on this mission, you know,' she says, but it's an empty threat. Malkovich knows it too and taps her fingers lightly on the arm of the chair, letting Kawashima's words wash over her. This is the worst way to annoy her, as Malkovich learnt on their first collaboration. She had performed well then and had only got better since. In fact, she was the only spy Kawashima knew never to have failed a mission. She would have preferred it if Malkovich would slip up once in a while, to give her something to throw back in her face when she got overconfident.   
  
So,' Malkovich asks calmly. What do you want me to DO about this pair? Monitor them? Or kill them like you usually -'  
  
A warning look from Kawashima tells her not to push it. Normally this wouldn't have worked, but Malkovich was intrigued by this mission. And when all was said and done, Kawashima was her senior, who could, and very probably would, make sure she too was "eliminated", if she got too far out of step. Kawashima had a very ruthless attitude towards lives, especially those of subordinates who knew something about the army's workings. It was the one thing Malkovich hated most about her.  
  
Your mission is to infiltrate the group, and journey with them until Dehuai is defeated. Then capture the girl and return her to us.'  
  
Why capture her?'  
  
For mass murder of guards on the Changchun-Dalian express train last night. Here,' Kawashima hands Malkovich a blue cardboard folder. This is your mission outline. You leave for Fengtian tonight at 23:00 hours, from the airbase at Tokyo.'  
  
Malkovich takes the folder, tucks it under her arm and stands up. Kawashima picks up a note from her in-tray and begins reading.  
  
Well?' asks Malkovich. Aren't you going to wish me good luck?' She looks at Kawashima with a hint of a sarcastic smile. Kawashima ignores her and continues reading. Malkovich turns round and walks towards the door. As she exits she can hear Kawashima start to dial a number on her telephone.  



	2. Trying Your Luck

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PFONT SIZE=4Author Note: I am just typing this one out without writing it firstBR  
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Roger Bacon: so its gonna be crap.BR  
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Miffy: HEY! What are you doing here? I thought I told you to do my homework! Anyway, ignore hatboy, the term I would prefer to use is less . . . refined.BR  
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Bacon: She means it saves time. . . AND DONT CALL ME HATBOY! BR  
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(Miffy starts killing Roger Bacon with a toastrack. Dont ask me, its Friday, I dont have to make sense on Fridays.)BR  
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UPart One, Chapter 2: Trying Your Luck/UBR  
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It is a clear bright day. A small breeze ruffles the trees in Fengtian and the sky is blue with only a few clouds. Despite all this, there is a cold edge to the morning air. Malkovich stands on the roof of a small weapons shop. She pulls out her black radio handset, large and clumsy by todays standards but the best available at that particular time. She presses in the button combination for Kawashima quickly and expertly. There is the usual burst of static, then a silence indicating her cue to speak.BR  
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Come in Kawagoe, this is Malkovich in Fengtian. Do you read me, Kawagoe?BR  
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Kawashima answered, sounding snappy and annoyed as usual.BR  
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Malkovich, its about time. Have you completed step one of your mission objective yet?BR  
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No, but Ive been tracking them and Im just about to plant the bomb. Ive got them in a shop, send out the radio message soon, and thatll drive them out. But Kawashima, are you sure that this plan will work, it does seem to rely overly on chance-BR  
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Then youd better not take any extra ones this time, had you? Right Malkovich, are you ready, because the radio broadcast is going on air nowover and outBR  
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Malkovich called, mostly to annoy the lieutenant-colonel. It worked, and in her office in Kawagoe, Kawashima fumed as she sent a message to air the radio broadcast.BR  
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Malkovich set the bomb and waited.BR  
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As she waited, she prepared herself for the part she would be playing for some time now. She would still be a spy, but that was the only similarity. She would hate the Japanese Army, and the bomb Yuri and Alice would get mixed up with would have been planted to save civilians by luring them outside the train station shed just set another bomb in. Malkovich enjoyed this part of the job. And she was surprised how easy it felt to tell herself she was against the army. It hardly even felt like acting. She pushed this thought to the back of her mind. She didnt think this was the right time to deal with her subconscious.BR  
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The explosion rang out, louder than Malkovich had been prepared for, and it surprised even her. She realised that while she had been getting herself into character Kawashima must have sent out the radio message and the bombs countdown had ended. She looked down, and, surprisingly, things had gone to plan. A thin blonde girl who fitted Eliotts description and a tall young man with messy brown hair were indeed unconscious on the ground below. She jumps down, mentally switching into her character as she does so. She walks towards the man as he begins to come round.BR  
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h-hey nows with the big boom alla sudden He opens his eyes. Woah! Lady, I can see yourBR  
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Malkovich giggles. IThis is where the fun starts. . .BR  
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Good, youre alive. Thank God the bomb I designed to SAVE people didnt end up killing them! Anyway, I hope you got a good look, sonny boy. Just think of it as my apology. She turns to the young woman, who is still struggling into consciousness. And how are you, missy?BR  
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m all right, replied Alice, who clearly wasnt. Right on time, two privates from the Japanese Army appeared. They were there to make sure everything was going all right, and provide backup if it wasnt. Malkovich doubted the day would ever come when shed need bailed out by a couple of privates.BR  
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Hey look! A white woman! And theres a guy with her!! Theyre the people from the radio!! Malkovich feels their acting is wooden to the point of arousing suspicion and shoots a look which indicates they should get the hell out of there.BR  
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Call for reinforcements!! H-hurry, we gotta inform the captain! The pair run off.BR  
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Ha! Cowards! About what Id expect from Kawashimas mentheir main talent seems to be running away. She laughs despite herself. So theyre after you too, are they?!BR  
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The young man was outraged. re not bomb-toting terrorists, ya hear? Jeez lady, my ears are still ringing!BR  
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t worry, thatll clear up. Malkovich had noticed that Alice, supposedly responsible for brutally killing a train full of armed guards, had stayed silent, staring shyly at the ground for most of the time shed been talking to the man. It didnt fit her description at all. She found it hard to imagine this girl killing anything. IBut I cant rely on instincts. Im lying. How do I know she isnt?BR  
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Now, she thought, she had to somehow persuade them to want her to join them. And she didnt think looking too eager was the right way to go about it. She had a feeling that they would follow her if she left.BR  
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Now then, Ive gotta get out of here before they come back but. . .what are you gonna do? I cant babysit but you can come with me if you want. Okay, Im going on ahead. See ya!BR  
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She paused a second in an attempt to sense their reaction. Not wanting to wait long in case they noticed, she climbed down a nearby manhole, knowing sewers were the best way of travelling unseen. She was certain that theyd follow her. All she had to do now was wait.BR  
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	3. Outsmarted

Author Note: Ok, sorry about the extreme wooliness of last chapter's plot. I know no self-respecting spy would be seen dead using a plan like that but you have to use your imagination or whatever the little motto at the top of the page tells you to do.  
  
Part One, Chapter Three: Outsmarted  
  
  
_. . . but no suspicion no clue you've been . . . outsmarted. ~The Hives  
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Malkovich has been waiting in the sewers for some time now. She leans against the dirty brick wall, listening intently. She could hear the pair's voices faintly. Now she was beginning to worry. Maybe they weren't going to follow her. . . But she wasn't prepared to let it wait for much longer. She was going to have to do something to capture their attention. Inspiration struck, and she quickly fired three shots from her handgun and dropped to the floor, faking injury.  
  
As she had expected, Yuri and Alice run in soon, worrying about the source of the unidentified gunfire. Malkovich keeps her eyes firmly shut, feigning unconsciousness.  
  
It's that woman...' Alice cried, somewhat surprised.  
  
Oh, asleep again, eh?' Yuri laughs. What should I do?' He bends down close to Malkovich, who is finding it very hard not to burst out giggling, let alone look knocked out. Um, hello? Good heavens, she's out cold. I'm sure she wouldn't mind if I just. . .?'  
  
Alice sighs. Yuri doesn't notice.  
  
Go ahead,' replies Malkovich, who thinks it's better that she comes round before long.  
  
Whoa!' Yuri yells, jumping backwards with a start.  
  
Ooh, that hurts,' Malkovich groans to herself. Then, louder, Now look here, sonny boy. Aren't you going to help me up with an Are you all right, fair lady?' and a smile?'  
  
B-but you obviously don't need any help. . .' Yuri was slightly confused.  
  
I never thought there'd be monsters in the sewers,' Malkovich lies smoothly. I guess even I slipped my guard THAT time. That was nearly the end of my epic saga! If the press lost me now they'd be positively crushed.' She was unsure if she had talked too much here and let slip a degree of her nervousness. She scans their faces for any sign of suspicion, but Yuri looks like he is taking it all in his stride and Alice just looks mildly concerned.  
  
  
Are you all right?' Alice asks timidly as Malkovich pulls herself to her feet.  
  
  
Yes, I'm fine. Thanks. Oh, you're the two I met before!' As if anyone else is going to be wandering around in the sewers, she thinks. But still, she does her best to act surprised. The terrorist boy and the mysterious girl.'  
  
  
YOU'RE the terrorist! We're just a couple of helpless murderers!' snaps Yuri, annoyed at Malkovich's constant terrorist comparisons. But, she tells herself, he can't be too angry using a line like that. Best to show that she was anti-terrorist too, though.  
  
  
Terrorist!' she snaps back, matching Yuri's anger level but being careful not to surpass it. Don't lump me together with those barbarians! I'm a spy. S-P-Y. Get it?' She tries to  
lighten the tone a little. A ravishing beauty that just happens to be Miss Spy Genious. The name's Malkovich. Of course, Malkovich is only my code name. Say, tell you what. I'll let you in on a little secret. My real name!'  
  
  
Look, I didn't come here to save me and you don't need to tell me your name!' says Yuri, who doesn't think getting involved with a spy who also appears to be high on the Japanese Army's Wanted list was a very good idea. Malkovich was loathe to admit he had a point and, not for the first time, doubted the validity of Kawashima's plan. It was very uncharacteristic. Usually Kawashima's plans were foolproof and mapped out to the last detail. She knew Kawashima was waiting for her to mess up, but it really wasn't like her to jeopardise an important mission just out of spite. She was determined not to fail, anyway. Partly not to spoil her reputation and partly to prove a point to Kawashima. She found she didn't have any malevolent feelings towards the pair involved though. That was unusual. She told herself to stop letting her personal thoughts interfere and get on with the matter in hand.  
  
Hey, wait! And here I was gonna give you my phone number, too!'  
  
  
  
Jeez, I got it already! OK, so what's your name?' asked Yuri, who secretly quite wanted to know.  
  
  
You wanna know that bad, huh? My my, I can't keep em away with a stick!' she decides to try flirting. It had worked very well on past occasions, and she had a feeling that she was mainly appealing to Yuri's judgment. Alice seemed to trust his opinion on most things, she thought, because she didn't appear to be expressing one of her own.  
  
  
Fine, forget it!' Yuri didn't want to know that badly and was eager to move on before Kawashima got there. Malkovich almost panicked. Best to just say it, she decides, and get it over with before Yuri loses interest completely.  
  
  
Hold on! OK, OK, here goes. My real name is Margarete. Margarete Zelle.'  
  
  
Alice speaks for the first time in a considerable while.   
  
  
Margarete, then? My name's Alice Elliot.' Like I didn't know that, Margarete thinks. And this is Yuri Hyuga.'  
  
  
Hyuga?!' Margarete thinks, considering this name. She is sure she's heard it before. Then it dawns on her. Ben Hyuga! It couldn't be a coincidence. Hyuga was a fairly unusual name. Kawashima will be interested to hear this. All the more reason not to tell her for a while. If she's going to make this mission hard for Margarete, Margarete decides she's damn well gonna make this mission hard for her.  
  
  
Pleased to meet you both,' Margarete says, conscious she has been lost in her own thoughts for a while. She certainly meant this statement. You won't regret having me on board.'  
  
  
I've got a bad feeling about this. . .' Yuri murmours. Margarete heard, though she didn't know if she was supposed to have. She raised her eyebrows a tiny amount and made a mental note to keep a particularly close eye on Yuri.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Anyone reading this? Review? Please? Anyone there?Hello?  
  
Roger Bacon: No, no-one's reading this. They have LIVES, Miffy, LIVES. They don't sit about all day reading crap that mangles a perfectly good plot and doesn't even feature me.   
  
Miffy: Oh shut up. YOU'VE read this, I noticed.  
  
Bacon: . . .well I'm not going to review. . .  
  
Miffy: You know, for the second coolest alchemist in a game you're crap at comebacks.  
  
Bacon: AHEMdid you say SECOND coolest?  
  
Miffy: Yeah. I bet ALBERT would have a snappy line for that! (Actually, IS Albert an alchemist? I can't remember, I know Bacon taught him though. Hell, Bacon's way cooler, but don't tell him that. He'll just get big-headed about it).  
  
Roger Bacon sulks and Miffy does a little I-won-the-argument' dance which takes away any dignity she might actually have gained from winning the argument. So we'll leave on this touching scene, I think, before either Miffy or Bacon actually kill each other and there's no-one to write the next chapter.  



	4. Driftwood

Ok, bear with me and my slightly ropy to say the least plot. The ending's quite good. In my humble opinion. Which really doesn't mean a lot, because my latest source of amusement is that the spellchecker keeps trying to change Malkovich' to melodic'. Anything's funny on this much sugar.  
  
  
  
Part One Chapter Four: Driftwood  
  
_Everything is open/ Nothing is set in stone/ . . . / Drifting over bridges/ Never to return / Watching bridges burn/ ~Travis_  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Kawagoe! Come in Kawagoe. This is Agent Malkovich in Fengtian airbase.'  
  
Malkovich, I hope you have made significant progress by now-'  
  
Look ,Kawashima, it's getting kinda complicated. Um . . .' She didn't quite know how to put the next part. Dehuai had this kinda. . . demon dog, which he was controlling. It sounds really stupid, but-'  
  
It doesn't surprise me. I'd been expecting something of the kind from Dehuai   
soon. I have to say, though, a demon dog is really scraping the bottom of the barrel.'  
  
Kawashima managed to direct this last statement as if it was Margarete's fault Dehuai hadn't produced a monster of a higher standard.  
  
Anyway, Kawashima,' says Margarete, hurridly moving on, still wondering why Kawashima's remark had hurt so much. She wouldn't normally be bothered, it was normal for Kawashima to make these sort of comments. I can't be long. I told them I'd find a plane.'  
  
What about the plane you'd been assigned?' Kawashima's voice is dripping with scorn.  
  
The dog blew it up,' Margarete says, unable to resist laughing to herself at how ridiculous that sounds. As always, Kawashima fails to see the funny side.  
  
Take this mission more seriously, Malkovich. Listen carefully. As you know, most of our privates are unaware of this mission. As we cannot inform them of the details-'  
  
- cos then you'd have to shoot ALL your troops.' Margarete has a pretty good idea of what happened to the soldiers that did have to be told. And she doesn't like it.  
  
Malkovich.' Kawashima takes on an angry warning tone As I was trying to say, I will inform the troops we are pursuing you but will not allow them to engage in armed combat with you or the other two. I will contact you once you reach Shanghai. Over.'  
  
See ya!' Margarete says cheerily, for the sole purpose of annoying Kawashima. This time the fun is increased by her secret: Yuri's name. Still smiling slightly, she runs off to find her plane.  
  
  
  
Margarete found her plane, if you can call it that, rotting behind a deserted hangar. She looks it up and down critically. It is about 10 years old, nearly as old as a plane could possibly be at that time. Even still, it manages to look about fifty. It had been painted red once, but now most of the paint had peeled away. It was tiny, and had hardly any passenger space. The controls looked a bit dodgy, too.  
  
  
Huh,' she mutters to herself. Guess it'll have to do.' She jumps into the front seat, it has nothing near anything that could be called a cockpit, and begins gearing up the rusty old engine. It splutters. Come ON!' she says through gritted teeth. It chokes. She growls in frustration, and gives some mysterious part of its decrepit machinery a sharp kick. Surprisingly, it moves off quickly, albeit shakily, and she steers it towards where Yuri and Alice stand talking. They both stare in a mixture of wonder the damn thing works, and fear that it might not break down before they actually have to get IN it.  
  
Hey you guys, look what I found!' she cries enthusiastically. What do you think? It was abandoned, I think, but it started when I gave it a swift kick!'  
  
Yuri is the first of the pair to speak. '. . . Oh yeah, that's a hand-me down all right.'  
  
Alice is still trying to come to terms with the fact such a modern invention can look so prehistoric. Y-you want us to RIDE in it?' she finally stutters.  
  
Bingo! Stop your chattering, kids, and jump in!'  
  
The pair, still slightly taken aback, move forwards towards the plane. Yuri jumps in first. Margarete turns toward the dashboard, and stares at the antique controls, trying to figure out what they will do.  
  
Goddamn it,' she mutters to herself, thumping an unidentified set of buttons.  
  
Damn, is this thing made for midgets or what? And what's with the squeaking? Will this thing really fly?' Yuri regales her with a blast of complaints and questions. Margarete, ignoring him, yanks down on a creaking lever. The engine slides up a gear. Alice, worried about being left behind, jumps into the plane and sits down in the nearest space available. Which just happens to be on top of Yuri, who cries out in surprise.  
  
Oh! I'm so sorry, Yuri!!'  
  
N-no problem! You're plenty light, Alice?!' replies Yuri, who can't believe his luck.  
  
Don't you two get all cuddly on me now!' calls Margarete, grinning. This is it now! Hold on tight!' She pulls back on the gearstick and the plane begins to roll along the ground, shaking alarmingly.  
  
Y-yo Margarete!' Yuri yells, fearing for his safety. Maybe this plane wasn't such a hot idea. . . !'  
  
It's really s-s-shaking!' Alice agrees, and screams at a particularly large jolt.  
  
There's no turning back now!' she informs them to their horror. Come on Yuri, you're a BOY, for God's sake! Show a little gumption!! Here goes! Full throttle!'  
  
The plane pulls back and begins to rise into the sky, still shuddering violently. After a while of horrific dipping and rising, throughout which Yuri and Alice both shout in protest, the plane levels itself and begins to move more smoothly. Margarete leans back in the pilots seat and taps her fingers on the dashboard, inviting praise from the still nervous couple behind her.  
  
Look where you're going for God's sake! Are you trying to kill us?!!' Yuri explodes in return. Margarete sighs and shifts so she's sitting up straight, staring out of the front window. This seems to relax them a little. The ground below hem gradually changes from grassy plains into rocks and crags, and coastline, until there are only the foam-topped waves of the Yellow Sea.  
  
  
  
  
  
Margarete is full of curiosity about what actually happened on the train. She increasingly doesn't trust Kawashima's story. It doesn't fit this pair at all. There has to be something more to it. But still, she is unusually shy abut asking them. Maybe it would look suspicious. But, she tells herself, it's best to ask them now, before it's well ,before it's too late. If they are innocent, what will happen when she delivers Alice to Kawashima doesn't bear thinking about. She twists round in her seat, abandoning the steering.  
  
Hey-' she begins.  
  
Ssh,' says Alice, indicating Yuri. He's asleep!'  
  
"Aww, sweet,' remarks Margarete. He's cute when he's sleeping.'  
  
Mmm,' agrees Alice, studying Yuri's face in a way that suggested she thought he was cute the rest of the time too. She draws her eyes away after a while. Margarete notices she looks almost sad. She can't bear to think of Kawashima killing her, which would almost certainly happen if she went through with the mission. These thoughts surprise her. She's never let her personal feelings get involved with a job before.  
  
What were you going to say?' Alice asks, drawing her attention back from her thoughts.  
  
' she is unsure of how to start the question. ' . . . how did you get mixed up with Dehuai in the first place?'  
  
Alice looks slightly surprised at the question but begins to answer quickly.  
  
Well, when I was travelling with my father. . .'  
  
  
  
  
Margarete swallows as Alice finishes her tale. She wasn't lying, many years of experience in the spy trade tell her that. She realises that she has no idea what to do. That comes as something of a shock to her. She stares sullenly at the dashboard, thinking. Now she knows she has to betray someone,. Kawashima, or Yuri and Alice?   
  
Her morose train of thoughts is broken by Yuri's voice shattering the awkward silence.  
  
Dad, dad, they're coming to kill Mum! Help!!'  
  
His voice trembles like a scared child's. She whirls around. Alice is staring at Yuri's face, uneasy.  
  
Should we-' she begins. Her question is cut short by a strangled sound omitting from the plane's worn-out engine. Two short clunks follow. Margarete yells expletives and Alice pales, fearing the worst. Then the engine splutters loudly and the plane begins to lose height, straying from its course, diving and jerking dramatically. Yuri begins to mutter in his sleep but does not awake. Alice starts to shake him, gently at first.  
  
Yuri. . . wake up! Please wake up!'  
  
  
' . . . man. . . huh. . . What?' He reaches consciousness. Did something happen?'  
  
Did something HAPPEN?!' Margarete yells in disbelief. I'll say it did! How can you possibly sleep at a time like this, sonny boy?!'  
  
Time like what?' Then it dawns on him. The engine's busted!'  
  
Yuri,' Alice says, looking into his eyes with sadness in her own. I heard what you said in your sleep. You were saying "Dad, dad, they're coming to kill mom! Help!!". . . You seemed to be in so much pain. . .'  
  
Yuri falters for a minute, not knowing how to react.  
  
Look here, missy!' Margarete shouts. This is no time for a casual discourse on somniloquy! We're going to crash! CRASH, I tell you!'  
  
The plane's engine finally gives up any pretence at staying airborne and they drop quickly. Margarete yells. Alice shrieks. Yuri stays silent, staring ahead, terrified and transfixed on the ocean approaching fast. He also wonders how much else he said in his sleep. They land in the water with a deafening splash. Fortunately, the wooden plane is light and floats, gliding through the water. And by some miraculous lucky coincidence, they have landed beside a small fishing port, belonging to the City of Dalian. The plane sails through the ocean more smoothly than it ever did through the air, fittingly serene and peaceful at it's last journey's end, into the harbour.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Author note: Has it come to this? (points gun at Roger Bacon's head) Right, review or hatboy gets it! ^_^ No, really, I will welcome any reviews, if you think it's rubbish, tell me, I just wanna know someone's reading this. But if you're too nasty I might argue back, so only flame if you think you can put up with me going on about it for hours. And don't you bother to review, Tattered Wings, cos I still ain't talking to you. You damn well know why!  



	5. One Too Many Mornings

Author Note: MwahahaBa-con! Which do you wanna hear first , the good news or the bad news?  
  
Bacon: * sweatdropping * The. . . the good news?  
  
Miffy: We got reviews!  
  
Bacon: And the bad news?  
  
Miffy: Read the reviews. . .  
  
Bacon: I hate you Aegis.  
  
Miffy: Heeheeehee! (shoots Bacon)  
  
Bacon: Ack. (falls down)  
  
Miffy: Thank you reviewer people! Have a cookie! (throws packet of biscuits at the computer screen) Um, that's not gonna work, eat a biscuit and pretend I gave it to you . . .  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Part One, Chapter 5: One Too Many Mornings  
  
  
  
_It's a restless hungry feeling/ That don't mean no one no good/ When ev'rything I'm a- sayin'/ You can say it just as good/ You're right from your side/ I'm right from mine/ We're both just one too many mornings/ An' a thousand miles behind ~Bob Dylan_  
  
  
  
  
  
Margarete sits with her chin resting on her hands, staring into the darkness that surrounds her. She was in Dalian, in the small harbourside inn, in the room she was sharing with Yuri, Alice and Zhuzhen for the night. She couldn't sleep. She was too worried about what she should do next. Out of the blue, Kawashima had turned up, posing as a courier. Obviously this was supposed to be a way of providing transport for to Shanghai, but in Margarete's opinion all it did was complicate things. She sighs. To make it all worse, she had unwittingly let slip of her hidden feelings to Zhuzhen: "I don't like this, and I don't like HER'. Why? This wasn't like her. She had been acting very out of character since this mission started. Pondering everything, questioning the right and wrong of every decision. She should just be getting on with her mission. Listening intently, she could hear the three's deep, regular breathing. She frowns, thinking. She felt far too restless to stay in here all night. So she pulls herself to her feet and walks stealthily and quietly towards the door. She gives a last sad look towards the three sleeping bodies in the ancient beds. She wonders what they're dreaming about, who else has slept in these beds, what had brought them too Dalian. Had they been friends? Lovers? Perhaps they'd ended up on a quest too. Maybe, just maybe, fifteen years ago, someone with the same aims had. . . She shakes her head. She couldn't have ideas like this, not in her line of work. Get sentimental and you're out. She swallows, trying to quell the small lump building up in her throat, and opens the old oak door slowly, careful to make no sound.  
  
  
  
  
Margarete walks down to the harbour. She sits down on the rickety weatherworn jetty and swings her legs over the side. Dalian is deserted, all the windows are dark, the citizens asleep. She gazes up to the sky, which is an inky blue-black, a protective blanket over the earth. Tiny stars twinkle, alone in the night. Staring across the bay, she can see the sky has just begun to lighten in the east, to a pale blue that seems transparent, like you could see right through to the other side of the sky if you knew where to look. Maybe  
you _could_, she thinks, and immediately curses herself for having these silly romantic notions. Suddenly she screws her eyes shut and drops her head. She can't ignore the fact she has to make a choice. In all her years of experience with the army she has never come up against anything as hard as this. But the Margarete of only a week ago would have found it an effortless task. She'd have stuck to the mission, it's the only thing to do, nothing matters as much as the mission. Not love, not innocent's lives, _nothing_. That was what the army drummed into you. But she'd heard Alice's story, and there was no doubt at all that she'd been telling the truth. And Yuri had spoken in his sleep. Only a sentence. But the pure terror and pain in his voice had touched her heart. The words were true, dreams didn't lie. And she trusted this pair far more than she trusted Kawashima. She had been putting that fact out of her head for some time, but it was true. Kawashima just treated everything like an everyday job. No feelings involved, no feelings to get in the way of the country's progress. To her it was all just her occupation. To shoot a man who was only there because he needed money for his wife and children, or because his government had called him up. They came to the army hoping to be heroes. And they didn't even die in battle, they were shot by their superior. One job, then you die, no hanging around or you might spill secrets. All these lives gone. Because of some _job._ Lives gone because of her. Tears prick the inside of her eyelids and she blinks them back, embarrassed even though no one is there to see her. She's strong, she's used to this, she's a _spy_ for fuck's sake, so why is she crying?  
  
  
  
  
Maybe she wasn't meant to be here. Perhaps she should have been someone else.  
  
  
  
  
She found herself wishing she had really been who Yuri and the others thought she was.  
  
  
  
  
Maybe she was meant to be that person. Meant to be her own made-up character. _That's who she should have been._   
  
  
  
  
  
And now it was obvious what she had to do. She couldn't avoid it. Finally, her mind was made up.  
  
  
  
Again, she glances upwards. The pretty transparent blue has spread and moved, now it lines the western horizon. most of the sky is pale pastel blue, but in places tinted with fiery orange from the sunrise, casting dark shadows behind the scudding clouds. The faraway mountains across the bay are misty, otherworldly, so far away from all the trouble and conflict. Involuntarily, a shiver passes down her spine. Tuning her head towards the other side of the harbour, she sees a tiny, battered looking fishing boat. Kawashima is standing outside it, awake already. Margarete wouldn't have been surprised if she'd been watching her. She gets up quickly and hurries over.  
  
  
  
Kawashima! Look, what are you doing here? I can cope on my own you know. And why did you have to send Chen in? I would have reported in soon-' She stops her angry torrent of words in mid flow and looks at Kawashima in a mixture of despair and frustration. Her head is tilted slightly to one side and her eyes are full of sadness and worry. But even this complex blend of emotions fails to soften Kawashima's heart. She answers in her usual quick, biting tone, like Margarete isn't worth spending her time on.  
  
Malkovich. I am here simply because you appear to be _un_able to cope alone. Your plane went down over the ocean and as a result you are stranded here with no means of transport.' Her patronising tone enrages Margarete, but she squashes her anger. And Chen was sent in because, well, how was I supposed to know you _would_ sign in? Anything could have happened.'  
  
You could have left it a little longer. It'd hardly been a day since I last spoke to you. And now you've told someone else about the mission, so -'  
  
Don't worry about it. Chen has been eliminated.'  
  
_That's what I am bothered about!'_ Margarete explodes. You knew you were going to kill him!! Why did you do that?!'  
  
  
Kawashima ignores her and calmly walks onto the boat, the hard heels of her boots tapping a rythym on the rotting wooden boards. Her indifference infuriates Margarete so much that she digs her nails into the palms of her hands. Without even realising it, she draws blood.  
  
  
  
For the first time, Margarete notices another person has been witness to the conversation. A tall man, dressed in a dark green army uniform. He has short dark hair, a strong jawline and a firm, set expression on his thin lips. He is unsure of whether to follow Kawashima or to remain where he was. He hangs around awkwardly. Margarete turns to face him, raising her eyebrows.  
  
So, what's your name? And why're you on this mission?' she asks, having to purposefully soften her voice to avoid sounding unreasonably cross.  
  
S-sergeant Kato, ma'am. I-I'm working for Kawashima. . .' His voice is deep, and you would expect it to speak confidently, but he sounds nervous. Margarete reckons working in close contact with Kawashima would shred any newcomer's nerves. Kato decides not to follow Kawashima and stands stiffly. Maragrete scans the horizon for any signs of the others arriving. The port is beginning to bustle with the first traders and fishermen of the day, but nothing to suggest Yuri, Alice or Zhuzhen are awake and ready to go. She begins to grow anxious, and paces the jetty nervously, thinking up every little thing that may have gone wrong, why they weren't there. She does her best to clear her head of these insignificant worries. There's no chance any of them would have happened anyway, she repeats this over and over inside her head, and immediately checks herself. _What is happening to me?_, she wonders. _I'm going to pieces. I need to get a grip.  
  
_Thankfully for her, the trio appear, hurrying down, Yuri in the lead as usual.  
  
Aren't we done yet?' asks Margarete, relieived to see them again. Let's go.'  
  
Kato recognises them. it's obvious Kawashima has let him know a great deal of her opinion of them, marketed as fact. H-Hey! The boss told me all about you!' There are undertones of wariness in his voice. Are you ready to leave?'  
  
Yeah, let's push off,' replies Yuri nonchalantley, unaware of all the time and energy that had been put into getting him to utter these words.  
  
Okay, all aboard!' calls Kato, rather too enthusiastically. But his eagerness did appear somewhat forced. Margarete follows the party on board, clenching her fists and building her resolve to put the results of her previous decision into action.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Whaddaya think she decided to do? Anyway, the real issue that's annoying me is HOW THE HELL DOES EVERYBODY TALK TO EACH OTHER? I mean, fine, Margarete would speak a lot of languages, being a spy. Yuri would speak Japanese, Chinese and possibly Russian. Zhuzhen would speak Chinese , Halley would speak only English, Alice would speak English, French and Latin (probably) and Gawd only knows what languages Keith would speak. He might have learned a few being nobility. But does that mean Margarete would have to translate for everyone, cos that could be awkward for Yuri and Alice, hem-hem. Does ANYONE have an answer? Because I have decided this means they are all speaking Ancient Greek, but that seems unlikely.  



	6. Indecision

O.K, sorry I had to change the rating, I didn't plan this ending when I started the fic but the one I did plan was rubbish. This chapter completely ignores the game plot and I just left out Sea Mother cos she would have complicated it and got in the way.  
  
  
  
  
  
Part One, Chapter 6: Indecision  
  
  
_Hesitation/ When I'm standing with my prey/ The indecision of if I should/ Blow him away/ What they were asking was/ More than I could bear/ The realisation of blowing a brother away/ Something in me was gone ~Eagle Eye Cherry_  
  
  
  
Margarete walks up to the small door of the boat cabin and knocks tentatively, ready to talk to Kawashima. It's night again, all day spent on this tiny boat surrounded by the vast sea. Yuri had been violently seasick within an hour or so of leaving port and Alice had been tending to his every need. She had been gearing herself up to talk to Kawashima since this morning, when she'd made up her mind. She knew what she had to do. _Why is it so hard?_ she thinks. _It's only a few words. I've been through much more.  
  
_Enter.' Kawashima's voice breaks through the empty silence. Margarete opens the door. The room she enters is small, with boxes on the damp wooden floor. Two small oil lamps glow like malevolant eyes watching from the darkness. The window facing the front of the boat shows impenetrable darkness, made opaque by the salt-tasting thick fog. Kato stands at the wheel, steering, but he leaves the post and faces Margarete when she enters. Kawashima turns round as well, and Margarete looks at her, feeling jumpy and sick with nerves.  
  
  
Kawashima-'  
  
  
Yes?' Kawashima sounds distracted, as if she'd been interrupted. Margarete swallows. She feels cold and empty from her hidden fear._ But I know what will happen,_ she reassures herself. _I know what I have to do.  
  
_Kawashima, I,' she trembles, but, she prays, not visibly. I. . . I can't. . .' She had the perfect words prepared in her head earlier, but now they're gone. They will return later when it's all over, and run through her head over and over, but for now she can't find them, they're lost.  
  
I can't do this mission,' she finally manages to blurt. I'm. . . I'm leaving. Leaving the army.' There. She'd said it. The words had lost any grace and poise they may have had as she planned this conversation, but she'd said them, that was what mattered.  
  
  
Very well.' Kawashima was calm and unaffected, cold even. As you wish.'  
  
  
Margarete turns to leave. Kawashima gives a minute gesture to Kato. Kato knows what he is expected to do and freezes, uncertain. Its obviously his first time working with Kawashima, or he would be used to this. Kawashima sighs, almost inaudibly. Her expression silently betrays her thoughts: _Do I have to do everything myself?_ Her hand slips into her pocket and closes around the handle of a gun. She draws it out slowly and points it carefully at the back of Margarete's head.  
  
  
Margarete knew this was going to happen, and she was ready. She whirls around, both hands clasped around the handle of her own pistol.  
  
  
Kawashima has never had anyone try to defend themselves before. She was used to her victims not suspecting a thing. But she regains composure quickly. After all, Margarete was a spy, better trained and more quick-witted than the privates.  
  
  
Kato unwittingly lets out a strangled cry of terror. He isn't here because he's a good soldier, but he comes from an influential family. This brings Alice running to see what's going on. Zhuzhen follows calmly. Yuri moves slowly, bogged down by his nausea.  
  
  
Alice lets out a piercing shriek when she sees Kawashima and Margarete, guns pointed at each other's faces, staring each other out. Yuri races to protect Alice, all thoughts of sea sickness forgotten. He stops dead in his tracks, unable to believe this.  
  
  
What the fuck?'  
  
Neither Margarete or Kawashima can afford to let their concentration go for long enough to answer, and neither Zhuzhen or Alice know.  
  
  
The pair take small careful steps, keeping their guns poised, so they stand outside the cabin, on the deck. Alice stands quaking near to Kawashima and Yuri stands near Margarete. Zhuzhen stands back, keeping out of the way, and Kato is in the cabin doorway, looking pale, as if he can't breathe properly. No-one dares move. It's like an invisible force keeps them rooted to their positions. And the force disappears in an almost visible flash, in an instant.  
  
  
Kawashima grabs Alice and pulls her in front of her. She still holds her gun in one hand. Alice's mouth hangs open in a silent scream. Yuri yells in anger and launches forwards in Kawashima's direction. His fist flies out and his clawed gloves catch the skin on Kawashima's face. They tear downwards, pulling the flesh out of shape, leaving three deep, long grooves. Ruby drops prick up inside them and soon the cuts are gushing blood. It runs down her face, splashing onto the boards in perfect round drops. Yuri pushes Alice out of the way, and puts one arm around her shoulders, supporting her as her legs have given way.  
  
  
Margarete's throat tightens. She knows she has to shoot. It is a choice of her or Kawashima. She has to shoot. But her hands have frozen on the gun. It doesn't feel real. This feels like a dream, like a nightmare where you know you'll never wake up. She stares straight ahead. Kawashima has her hands over her eyes, back bent over, blinded by the blood. She can't shoot now. It would be unfair. _Unfair?_ When Kawashima had shot-_murdered-_ so many innocent men, just to make her missions a little easier. Not enemy soldiers, her own men. And she had known something like this was going to happen. She had been prepared to kill. Why can't she do it?  
  
  
  
  
_She has to shoot.  
  
  
  
_There is no other way.  
  
Her finger tightens on the trigger. For an instant she thinks she's lost her nerve.  
  
She pulls her finger down.  
  
  
  
  
The bang is deafening. Time stands still as the bullet hangs in mid air. Kawashima is still oblivious. Oblivious until. . .   
  
  
Time starts again and the bullet is flying fast, blurring in the air and -  
And it hits. Margarete feels like she has completely lost control and in a way she has. She watches, unable to take her eyes away, as Kawashima's head is blown beyond recognition. Blood flies into the air. There is a sickening crack as her skull splinters and breaks, and a dull thud as her corpse hits the wet boards of the deck. Margarete falls to her knees, sickened. One small movement, a twitch of the finger, brought about _this. . . _ Pure red blood seeps across the deck, beginning to congeal. Fragments of wet, grey brains have burst out and landed near her. The same brain that had planned this whole mission. She raises her eyes to the body, trying to confront the results of her actions. Kawashima's carcass is cold and still. Her clothes are sodden with blood. In place of her head. . . Her head has been so destroyed you would hardly know it had ever been human. A mangled neck, and a clot of bone shards, blood so thick it looks black in the foggy night, ash-coloured pulpy brains blown apart. And she had done this. She feels bile rising in the back of her throat and vomits slowly.  
  
  
  
She hears voices far away, like she's under water. Someone crying, Alice. Someone's trying to talk to her.  
  
  
Margarete, Margarete? Are you all right? Margarete?' She can't speak to answer. Another voice says Let her be.' She shuts her eyes tightly and opens them again. She tries to piece together the parts of the scene around her.  
  
  
Yuri, kneeling beside Alice, trying to stop her fainting.  
  
  
Kato, slumped in the cabin doorway, stunned by the carnage.  
  
  
Zhuzhen, standing over him, watching events, sad and remorseful-looking. He lowered his eyes to face Kato and speaks prophetically. It's best it happened now.' What did that mean? She can't think now. The world is blurred, incomprehensible. She is still gripping the gun, knuckles white. Hand trembling, she lets it go, prising her fingers away one by one. Shaking uncontrollably, she attempts to push herself to her feet. Her legs give way and she collapses, dry-heaving. She feels someone stroking her back, comforting her to no avail. She feels dizzy, light-headed, darkness closing in from the edges of her eyesight. . .   
  
  
  
Margarete slumps forwards, head down. Yuri bends down beside her, holding his breath. He lifts her wrist to check her pulse and breathes a sigh of releif when he feels blood pumping beneath her cold skin. He lifts her gently, carries her through and lies her carefully on the tiny bunk bed. Her face looks haunted by some unseen dream. She cries out in pain and fear. Yuri and Alice look at each other, unsure whether to wake her. The moon, glowing full and bright behind the layer of fog, lets a silvery, ghostly light through, shining through the doorway onto Margarete's face, lending it the unearthly pallor of death.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
So God knows how they're going to handle Li Li. I hope you'll forgive the fact I haven't got a clue what actually happens when someone gets shot, I just had to use my imagination. And for my next story, do you think I should give it what seems like too high a rating for most of the fic or maybe change the rating again? (5/5/03: Heh. That was the unspeakably badly put together collection of random suicide attempts that was the Malice Judgement. And yup, rewrite for that in progress. This time Marianne can have a personality and everything. I just feel I could have done it so much better, even though I have no degree of talent whatsoever.)  
  
  
Thanks everyone that reviewed that story, especially aegis cos it looks like s/he is following it, and anyone reading it now who's going to review. Oh and Tattered Wings XO! Yuri's not a rapist (long story) and THAT'S NOT FUNNY! It has gone waay to far and I'm going to have to kill you now.  



	7. Part Two: Coffee With Bullet

A/N: Well, would ya believe it? I finally updated this thing. It's not much of a chapter, more of a burnt offering to prove I am still trying.  
  
  
Roger Bacon: Believe me, she's very trying.  
  
  
That reminds me. Formatting. Yeesh, I HATE my computer. However,this is a test run of an HTML thingy I just got so if this doesn't work it'll be all screwed and make no sense.   
Bacon: No change there then.  
  
  
*blows dust off previous chapters* Oh dear gods! I was called MIFFY back then! Woah, I sound all. . .annoying. Was I annoying back then? Oh, that probably means I'm still annoying now.   
  
  
Bacon: Yes. VERY annoying, neurotic, pathetic. . .  
  
  
And before we start, aegis, that thing with the shooting people in the head. . .it all depends on the distance, type of gun used etc. So it was vaguely possible that that would happen. I'm worried this chapter will suck. Seriously suck. I've probably lost all grasp I ever had on Margarete's character. . .  
  
  
Bacon: Which was none anyway. . .  
  
  
Hey, I've had enough of you now, hatboy! Go back in your box!  
  
  
Bacon: *sweatdrop* She's still calling me hatboy. Get on with the fic for gods' sake!  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Part Two, Chapter One: Coffee With Bullet  
  
Margarete's head is pounding. Blissfully unaware for a perfect second, the situation hits her like a hammer as soon as she finds consciousness. She's still sticky with sweat and blood, Kawashima's blood. Margarete swallows hard, trying to make the lump in her throat go away. Get over it, she tells herself, she's a spy, a professional. This is in the job description. But. . . that was someone she'd known. All these years, all these plans, all these missions together. Everything that was Kawashima, gone in an instant. . .because of her. With a sudden chill, it occurs to her that everyone she's ever had to kill had someone who thought of them like this, a part of a world blown away. . . Put it out of my head, she thinks, don't let ideas like this take over, what good can it do now? Sometimes people have to die, that's just the way things go.  
  
  
  
  
  
Margarete climbs off the small bed onto the softly swaying boards of the ship. Wondering how long she'd been out for, she steps tentatively out of the cabin, mind racing with what she should tell Yuri, Alice and Zhuzhen when they inevitably ask what had been going on. Upon seeing the outside, she suddenly stops in her train of thought, staring blankly at the sight that meets her.  
  
  
  
Something else has happened since she and Kawashima faced each other here. The deck is a mess of more than blood and brains, there's slime everywhere. Crates have been knocked over, scattered across the boat. What the hell? Kawashima's corpse has been left untouched where she fell. The others look battered, sombre, there's been a battle somehow. They are silent but for Yuri muttering something unintelligibly under his breath to Alice. As soon as Margarete appears, he stops mid-sentence.  
  
  
  
. . . What happened?' she asks, stunned; she'd never expected to be the one asking them. Yuri and alice begin to speak at the same time.  
  
  
  
Sea Mother-'  
  
  
Li Li-'  
  
  
  
They stop, each intending the other to continue. Zhuzhen appears to be unaware, gazing at his feet in melancholy thought.  
  
  
  
Li LI turned up,' Yuri carries on his explanation. And she changed into this damn monster thing. Sea Mother put all her energy into making a seal and trying to lay her to rest, send her to Nirvana. . .and she died. Sea Mother, not Li LI. We had to fight Li Li. And it was. . .'  
  
  
  
As Yuri launches into a lengthy explanation of events, another thing begins to prey at Margarete's mind, making her concentration continually falter. Unable to focus on Yuri's story, she can't help but ask.  
  
  
. . . Kato. Where's Kato?'  
  
Yuri, slightly put out she hadn't been paying full attention to him, gestures towards the cabin.  
  
He's in there. . . And while we're on the subject of explaining, don't you have quite a lot of that to do yourself?'  
  
  
  
Margarete feels a shiver of nerves run through her, though she'd known it was going to happen. She is afraid to tell the truth- they will be angry, and rightly so, she reflects remorsefully- but she doesn't want to lie to them again. If she does, she has the feeling the truth would show somehow. It'd be harder now than ever to keep secrets.  
  
  
  
Well?' Yuri prompts. What the hell was going on earlier?'  
  
  
Margarete makes a decision to tell them the truth and her stomach immediately fills with ice. Even if she had decided to lie, she couldn't come up with anything halfway plausible.  
  
  
  
I was sent to spy on you. . . by the Japanese army. . .' She falters over the words. Suddenly her tongue seems too big for her mouth, her brain can't string thoughts into sentences, she feels removed and dreamlike, as if she was remembering a lost panic.  
  
  
I'd been instructed to track you,' Somehow, she manages to continue. Capture Alice. . . . But. . .well. . . I thought about this, why I was. . .what I. . .which side I was on. . . That's why I had to kill her. . .' She trails off, knowing how bad this sounds. How can she explain something like that? She certainly can't come up with a justification.  
  
  
  
  
What, do you expect us to trust you now?!' Yuri explodes. Forget it!! I knew we should never have let you come with us in the first place! And after all that getting us to trust you, you betray us!'  
  
  
  
She feels relieved now. She's said it, and this was the reaction she'd expected. Alice keeps her eyes on Margarete, bemused. Alice didn't seem the type to lose her temper, but her distant though fixed expression is beginning to unsettle Margarete more than Yuri's yelling. She stares at the messy planks, lost and with no idea what to do. She can't expect them to trust her now, and there isn't any way she'll ever go back to the army.  
  
  
  
You know,' Yuri remarks, still angry but not yelling so loudly. If you're on our side now,' -he spits these words out like he doesn't believe them- you could have done something to HELP, put them off the scent, instead of starting a fucking gunfight and drawing even more attention to us! Bloody HELL!!' He aims a violent kick at a nearby crate, sending it rattling over the deck. Margarete swears under her breath, wishing she'd thought to be more subtle. In retrospect, she'd had the perfect situation for double-crossing. If she'd been careful enough Yuri and Alice might never have had to know. Too late now, she think sadly, and if there's one thing that won't help now it's regretting and wishing.  
  
  
She turns towards the cabin, not wanting to talk to Kato but not wanting to spend more time getting yelled at by Yuri either. Margarete hesitates at the cabin door. What will she say? What will he do?  
  
  
  
  
Inside, Kato is fully conscious again, but he looks afraid and confused. When she enters he gives her a look of the greatest contempt, and she can't blame him. Even if he;s in the wrong, she'd betrayed him as well. That's my job, she thinks, betraying people . . .  
  
  
  
You're one of them now,' Kato says. It's only half a statement. He's trying it out to see what her reaction is. He hasn't a clue whose side she's on. Margarete doesn't confirm or deny, but keeps her face carefully blank. Now, the army is getting in Kato's way. His emotions tell him revenge, this bitch killed Kawashima, shoot her! By the army code he's had drummed into him, though, in this situation he ought to capture her and the Elliott girl, and return them to an army base. There, though, they'll both be executed anyway, as far as he knows. What difference will it make if it's me or a firing squad? He considers this studiously. That spy, she'll certainly get shot, and she'll be harder to capture than the other.  
  
  
  
Agent Malkovich,' he says, he's never heard her real name, even. An army deserter. And you're in the way of our plans to capture Elliott. Well, you should know what happens to deserters by now. They get shot.' His voice is covered in false confidence and bravado. Margarete can tell he's terrified.   
  
No,' Margarete retorts firmly. If she was going to give in now, she'd killed Kawashima for nothing. You aren't taking Alice.' Her voice is even and controlled. Inside her head it feels like she's screaming in anger. Gripping her pistol by her side for the second time, she feels a mix of nerves - this battle could well be her last- and calm resolve- now she has something she's sure of. She knows whose side she's on.  
  
  
  
Kato can see she's going to fight over this. Now he's the lost one. He saw what happened to Kawashima, and he's all too well aware that it could be about to happen to him. But, his conscience reminds him, that's why he's here! What was the bloody point of being in the army in the first place if he isn't prepared to fight for his cause and die for his country? He loads his own gun. Sick with panic, he realises that this is it.  
  
  
  
Margarete will die. Or he will. And he is absolutely determined never to let Japan down.  
  
  
  
  
Spurred on by this thought, he squashes his terror and fires two quick, loud, echoing shots. Bullets flash through the air towards Margarete. She neatly sidesteps and whips her pistol up so it's pointing at Kato's head.   
  
  
  
Deja vu. . . Kato realises it at the same time. This is a reflection of the earlier deadlock with Kawashima. Margarete decides not to think too much. That only makes battles worse. . .  
  
  
  
She pulls the trigger and hopes for the best. Kato had been ready for that and ducks, jerking his head to the left and ending up in a crouch by one wall. The shots whizz past his right ear and smash through the cabin window. Glass explodes outwards onto the deck, propelled by the force of the bullets. Outside, the others rush to get out of the way. There's going to be more crossfire, this battle is fairer. Before, Kawashima had already been injured.  
  
  
  
  
Kato jumps up from his position, immediately shooting again. He's a better fighter than she'd given him credit for, but not the best aim. These shots end up in the wood of the cabin wall, closer to Margarete's middle than she was comfortable with. This is getting harder, she realises. Why had she assumed he was untrained, unable to hold his own? He'd been in Kawashima's shadow every time she saw him, that's why. . .  
  
  
  
  
Margarete fires blindly in his vague direction, hoping for the best, Quite what the best was she never did decide, but in a second it was too late. . .  
  
  
  
  
It takes longer for Kato to die than it had for Kawashima. By some miracle, the bullet lodged in his chest, smashing and splintering his ribs. Kato collapses onto the floor, air rattling through a punctured lung. He chokes,with blood and phlegm bubbling around his lips. Then his body jerks violently, contorts, and suddenly relaxes into uncanny stillness.  
  
  
  
Margarete stares at his corpse, the second life she's taken today. . . It's a shame, she thinks, he'd have been a good soldier. . .  
  
  
  
Outside, Alice is staring over the ocean. In the misty distance, the mountains of a Japanese island are only just visible. On the other side of the boat, the tall buildings and busy port of Shanghai are coming into view.  
  
  
  
  
Yuri stands by her side, facing the other way, watching events intently. His eyes fix on Margarete, blood spattered down her coat, standing quietly over the body of Kato.  
  
  
  
  
Oh shit,' he breathes. They're really gonna have it in for us now.'  
  
  
  
  
  
  
I'm sorry for two things. One is that that chapter just sucked. The other is that this took so long to update. I knew it was gonna take ages. . . And certain details don't work. I haven't really got much of a clue, actually, there might be a place where you can see Shanghai and Japan at the same time. From maps, it seems maybe only just, on a VERY clear day. . . And as you can all see I can't write action scenes to save my life. Why the hell did I START this story? I wonder if I'll gain any readers this time? Please review, if you're reading this. Anyone? ^^ It won't take quite this long for next chapter. . .  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	8. Knock Knock

  
REALLY pushing it this chapter! These lyrics barely relate to any part of the plot. It involves severe imagination-stretching and they're Kato- orientated, I think. . .? Gods, I hardly even know myself. *sigh*   
  
  
  
  
Part Two, Chapter Two: Knock Knock  
  
_This time you got it all figured out./Think it's gonna work okay but I'll make sure it won't cause I'll be standing in your way./So wait a minute if you will./I ain't got no time but time to kill./When the ground starts getting hot it doesn't matter if you run or not./This time you've seen it done before./This time you're gonna get it right./Once more you fail miserably and then,/then you do it all over again. ~The Hives (again . . .)__  
_  
  
  
  
Margarete gives a last sad glance at the body of Kato and turns towards the wheelhouse door, hating herself. Surely she didn't have to kill him? There must have been a better way . . . But it was him or her, she reminds herself, one of us had to die. Why him? The thought leaps suddenly out into her thoughts. _What gives me more right to live? what a stupid notion! He'd have killed Alice, as well as me. Two lives or one, and anyway, amn't I in the right now? Wasn't that what this is all about?  
  
  
_She still isn't satisfied with her conclusion, but she has to put it out of her mind. There isn't time now.  
  
Margarete leaves the wheelhouse and moves tentatively towards Yuri. Alice is still looking into the distance and Zhuzhen is watching, thinking, reaching his own conclusions. Suddenly Margarete feels a rush of rage for them. . . Why can't they be angry, why can't they at least say something to her? They might have forgiven her, might hate her . . . Alice is watching to see what Yuri's going to do, she thinks he's in charge here. But Zhuzhen? She hardly knows anything of Zhuzhen yet, ut he's bound to come out with some surprise. He's too quiet for someone who knows nothing.  
  
  
Margarete stands in front of Yuri, then, if the other two aren't going to tell her anything. Alice has turned away from the sea and back to the boat. She looks pale and shocked; merely from bearing witness to the recent events. Margarete wonders if she herself looks as scared as this or merely removed. Like it matters . . .  
  
  
  
She stares straight at Yuri's face, silently demanding some kind of answer. _Will you please tell me if you trust me now? I killed them both . . . does that prove anything to you?_ But she doesn't speak, she fixes her blue eyes on Yuri's brown ones and hopes he'll speak first. This silence is proving hard for all of them to break. Margarete glances around quickly at Alice and Zhuzhen again. Alice seems to be starting to understand what had just happened, why two people were now dead, what was going on. She blinks, and speaks shyly and quietly, barely above a whisper.  
  
You killed Kato,' she says, then tries the last part like a question. . . . for us?'  
  
Margarete, relieved at even a sound, turns all her attention onto Alice. This sounds like Alice is prepared to forgive her for the moment at least. Or if not forgive, accept that she has made a new start now, she is telling the truth.  
  
Margarete inclines her head.  
  
Yes,' she says, bringing her eyes to meet Alice's. Yuri'd been surprised too at Alice being the first one to speak.  
  
Well,' he begins. Whatever side we're on . . . We're all gonna have to keep outta the army's way for a while.' He studies Margarete's face, deciding all over again. Guess we might as well do it together . . .'  
  
  
  
At least for now, the past has been put away for the sake of the present.  
  
  
So,' Zhuzhen speaks at last, pensively. Where do we go from here?' He surveys the scene around them. More time has passed than Margarete had first thought. They're nearly at Shanghai, and before they reach a port there is a lot of evidence they must hide. They all still feel slightly awkward; though Margarete doesn't want to use the conversational techniques she learnt when spying, when she's playing a part. She could probably make the chatter come easily, but it'd just be false, superficial, gloss. From now on, se silently promises, everything between her and the other three will be real. In an instant she suddenly sees how different Margarete and Malkovich are . . . And how they blur together sometimes. _What if they just become one person? One person who will be me?_   
  
  
Suddenly afraid of this happening, she speaks, mostly to get these nagging thoughts out of her mind.  
  
The army's gonna try and contact Kawashima soon. I'd suggest by then we should be far away from Shanghai, seen as how they know who they're looking for.' she glances around at the group. The only one they're not on the lookout for at the moment is Zhuzhen. But I reckon they'll leave it for a while, Kawashima was pretty much the top authority on this mission herself, and God knows they have enough else going on right now. The longest we'll have is probably about to days. By then, I hope we'll be as far away as we can. Pretty much right away.'  
  
  
Yuri casts a worried look towards the bodies of kawashima and kato, still lying where they fell.  
  
What are we gonna do with these two?'  
  
Margarete shudders, not noticing that she does.   
  
  
. . .I guess we'll have to dump them in the sea.' There really isn't anything else that they can do. But now she'll have to touch the bodies again, just when she was beginning to get used to the idea of their death. In her mind, she can still see the two corpses perfectly, eerie and forever hanging at the back of her mind, grinning into her thoughts. She knows they're just behind her.  
  
Yeah, but where?' Yuri says. Like you said, there's gonna be a hell of a lot of people looking for them. Surely if they're just off the coast of Shanghai, that'll be the first place the army looks?'  
  
  
We'd better get them down the coastline a bit then. If we don't go any further towards the land, and head on round the coast a bit, it ought to put them off the scent long enough to let us get into Shanghai, and, hopefully, out again too. . . . Now, do any of you happen to know anything about steering a boat?'  
  
. . . I can have a go,' Zhuzhen offers after a moment's consideration. All four of them make their way to the wheelhouse, Margarete pausing a little at the door, trying not to think about Kato's carcass inside. She notices Alice looks apprehensive near the bodies as well, not from emotional attachment, but simply from her proximity to the messy, bloodied hunks of meat that'd used to hold people. _Thinking about it like that, no one can really blame her. I'll be glad when we see the last of this damn boat. I can truly start again . . ._  
  
Which way should we go?' Zhuzhen asks, dragging Margarete's thoughts away from her anticipation of the future. She looks around the wheelhouse for a map, knowing there must be one somewhere. Sure enough, there is, crumpled,lying by the wheel. Lying where Kato, steering, must have dropped it . . . Shocked by a gunfight, stunned by a former ally's betrayal.  
  
  
There are ghosts everywhere, reminding her. She can't escape them here.  
  
_It''ll be different in Shanghai, Then I can let it go.  
  
_Margarete scans the map. There is a line drawn taking in Kawagoe, Fengtian, Dalian. Circles around Changchun and Wuhan. _Why Wuhan? I expect I'll never know now . . ._ On a patch of ocean, there are notes in Kawashima's unmistakable and immaculate hand. **Agent Malkovich will lure the group to Shanghai . . . After the emergency change of plan due to technical failure . . .** Suddenly overcome by a rush of mournful grief for the dead pair, Margarete takes her eyes away from the letters and focuses on the floor instead. _How can I feel sad for them? After what they d have done?  
  
How can I not, after what I've done?  
  
  
_Margarete? Are you all right?' She nearly jumps a the sound of Alice's voice.  
  
Yeah,' she answers, angry at herself for getting lost in her own mind. She stares at the map, pointedly avoiding any writing. There's a little bay there,' she indicates with one finger. South-east of Shanghai, near Jiaxing . . .' Zhuzhen takes the map from her and begins to turn the boat around. It gives a dramatic lurch and wobbles precariously, dipping from side to side.  
  
  
Dammit, pops! Don't DO that!!' Yuri cries. Are you trying to kill us?!'  
  
  
Oh come on now . . .' Zhuzhen laughs quietly under his breath. Don't think about it and you'll be fine.'  
  
  
How can I not think about it?' he protests. This is worse than your stupid aeroplane,' he adds to Margarete as he slouches round to the cabin, accompanied by a concerned Alice. Margarete smiles softly to herself. Things are starting to get back to normal.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
It doesn't take long to sail along the coast to the bay. margarete stands by Zhuzhen in the wheelhouse, directing him to a quiet spot. The place she chooses is between two towns, Zhenhau to the south and Hangzhou to the north, but it can't easily be seen between either of them, tucked away between rocks and cliffs. The water here is deep, greenish blue and peaceful. A final resting place. . . . Margarete has a sneaking suspicion that they won't rest so easily. She's not being superstitious, merely thinks the army will find the bodies soon, will hunt them down.  
  
  
I guess we leave them here,' Margarete says, feeling a reassuring sense of calmness at the thought of finally being rid of the corpses. Keeping this goal in mind to stop her from losing her nerve, she walks over too Kawashima's body and pauses.  
  
_This is it. Just get it over with and everything'll be fine._ She bends down and picks up the body. It's surprisingly light. _That's because her head's gone . . ._ All that's left where her head used to be was a mangled stumpy mess of clotted blood, a few shards of bone showing through. Margarete takes her eyes off the gory spot and carries the body to the side of the boat. Holding Kawashima over the water, she stare into the murky green.  
  
_Let her go.  
  
  
_She drops the body as gently as she can. There's a deep splash and a fizzy buzz of salt water tinged with crimson. The dark shadow of Kawashima sinks in to the depths. She is gone, finally.  
  
  
_Easier than I'd expected, but there's still Kato to go._  
  
  
Margarete goes over to the wheelhouse, where Kato's body lies in a sticky mess of gore, his chest blown apart. She bends down to hoist his cadaver to the side of the boat. It's easier this time, dealing with Kawashima has steeled her nerve. But Kato's body is heavy, a dragging leaden weight, a bitter reminder of the fact what she is carrying is nothing but a corpse, a lifeless body. She remembers how Kawashima had always prepared her troops for a hard battle by telling them that even if they died, it would be a good and noble thing because they died for their country. _This isn't noble at all. No one will hail Kato as a hero. . . From what I gathered, Kawashima's own father won't even mourn her very much . . . Oh, fuck, what have I done here . . .?  
  
  
But no one gave any of these soldiers recognition either. No one knows their names. And most of them won't even have someone feeling like **this **about them. . .  
  
  
  
_Margarete drops Kato as close as she can to where the ripples still echo from Kawashima. _Don't let them be alone. . . There's another of these stupid sentimental thoughts.  
  
  
But I can afford to have them now! I can afford to think about things, to decide the right thing to do.   
  
My only remaining ties are friendship and loyalty. Finally I'm free. . .  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
_. . .I hate typing things up . . . It would be even worse if I ever wrote a chapter of decent length. That wasn't very in Margarete's character, but she'll be more like normal next chapter. Thank you for the reviews aegis ( The fic will not stop for a helluva long time. If everything goes to plan it's gonna carry on through the whole game and have something after the game finishes too. I don't know what you mean by flashbacks but I will put a bit in about her past. (In Rouen, there's gonna be slightly more of a conversation with her father than there was in the game.) And yes, Alice is bit in shock. I think we'd all be a bi in shock if stuff like that started happening all of a sudden.(Okay, unless we were big tough people like Yuri, or . . .Zhuzhen. . .Hmm. I don''t get Zhuzhen, which is why he isn't doing very much. But the next part of the plot is kind of where he has a starring role. . .) and Loki, Harbringer of Doom (Um. I'm scared. ^_^). And I FINALLY completed Shadow Hearts today! (I got the sad ending, but Yuri didn't seem half as depressed as I'd have expected . . .I can't get that ending song out of my head. And I had absolutely no idea that was how Zhuzhen's name is supposed to be pronounced.)  
  



	9. Unforgiveable Sinner

  
  
Part Two, Chapter Two: Unforgivable Sinner  
  
  
  
_You know where you've sent her/ You sure know where you are/ You're trying to ease off/ But you know you won't get far/ And now she's up there/ Sings like an angel/ But you can't hear those words/ Unforgiveable sinner ~Lene Marlin_  
  
  
  
  
  
In a spotless, spacious office, decorated only with two crossed Japanese flags and a world map on the wall, a man in unmistakable dark green army uniform sits at the desk. In front of it stands a younger man, dressed in a similar uniform. The latter gives a salute, while the preoccupied former all but ignores this gesture and stares at a piece of paper, clearly worried.  
  
  
Lieutenant Suketani?' enquires the younger man.  
  
Suketani breaks out of his train of thought.  
Sergeant-Major Itakura,' says Suketani. Have you been told yet about the latest complications in Leiutenant-Colonel Kawashima's latest mission?'  
  
No, Lieutenant,' Itakura says briskly.  
  
Sit down,' Suketani gestures to a chair, which Itakura pulls over to the desk and perches on stiffly. Now, Suketani continues. Lieutenant Colonel Kawashima was placed in charge of a mission, the aim of which was to eliminate Dehuai the Adept, but it also involved capturing the girl and her associate responsible for the murder of Japanese Army guards on the Changchun train, an incident I'm sure you were well informed about at the time, as were all Army officials working in the area. However, in the past few days, kawashima has failed to report in. It' s most unlike her, normally she is most meticulous about such things. So, we feel we have reason to believe something has happened to her.'  
  
  
Itakura nods, seeing where this is going. Suketani glances back down at his piece of paper and begins to speak again.  
  
Also involved in the mission was a spy who went by the code name Malkovich. Agent Malkovich has also been notably quiet for a significant amount of time. It has come to a point where it is deemed neccesary for someone to be sent in, to find out what has happened to them. Now you're probably wondering why you are being asked to do this instead of someone like myself being sent, someone already involved in this mission. . .'  
  
  
In fact, Itakura hadn't been wondering at all. _Ours not to reason why. Ours but to do, die, and try to keep our heads down while we do it._ Suketani is obviously going to explain anyway.  
  
We have become suspicious that Agent Malkovich is having dealings with someone outside the Japanese Army; perhaps that she was already spying on us for an outside party. Kawashima left notes regarding Malkovich's odd behaviour prior to departure. Lately she had failed to report in, and begun to question army practises, among other eccentricities. These coincided with her meeting with the Changchun train murderers, Elliott and Hyuga. If Malkovich is being disloyal to the Army, then it would be better if the officer sent in is one she does not know. And judging by your record, we felt you would be right for the job.'  
  
Itakura nods. he doesn't like the sound of this mission, particularly its connection with the notorious Dehuai. He has heard much about him, all of it bad. Still it's his job, and he can't refuse to do it.  
  
You,' Suketani says, will be sent to Shanghai, where the group ought to have reached by now, to locate them and establish what has happened to them. We will decide what to do next depending on what you discover.' He delves under a pile of paperwork to uncover a standard-issue blue cardboard folder. These are the details of when you will leave, descriptions of the people involved, and other mission information of the kind,' he tells Itakura, handing over the folder. The young Sergeant-Major takes it without a word and gets to his feet stiffly.  
  
Yes, Sir,' he says with a salute.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


***  
  
  


  
  
  
  
It's become a bright, clear day. A cool wind ruffles the East China Sea, as a small boat bobs nonchalently on the waves, seemingly peaceful and dreamy. Far from it. . .   
  
On the deck, Margarete takes in the scene. Most of the more suspicious mess; the blood, brains and worst of the slim; has been scrubbed away with the most suitable items they could find on the boat. There had been an old broom and a battered bucket tucked away in the wheelhouse, and they'd made do with that.  
  
  
Margarete wipes her hands on her skirt and smiles.   
  
Pretty nice job, huh?' She looks around the others for affirmation. Reckon no one'll expect a thing when we get into Shanghai.'  
  
  
Yuri laughs. Maybe not about the boat. But look at the state of us lot. . .'  
  
A suspicious looking foursome if ever there was one,' Zhuzhen adds quietly from his post at the wheel.  
  
Margarete remained unconcerned. Now the shadow of earlier was finally gone from over her head, and her spirits were buoyant as a result.  
Say we're a theatre troupe. You can get away with anything if you say you're a theatre troupe.'  
  
Knowing our luck, they'd make us put on a play,' said Yuri with a lighthearted grimace. Margarete can't help but grin at the mental image.  
  
The boat lurches ferociously and Yuri's grimace becomes all too real. Startled, Margarete swiftly turns to see what was going on. In front of them are grey docks, tall buildings, a vague sound of hundreds of people talking, dogs barking, all the everyday sounds they've been so removed from for what feels like a lifetime. Finally, they have reached Shanghai.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
It's great to be back on dry land again,' Yuri announces with feeling almost the instant they set foot on the quay. Following him off of the boat, Zhuzhen nods in agreement, taking in the Shanghai skyline. Memories of his last visit to Shanghai begin to flood back into his mind. Putting them aside for the moment, he adds I think we should all get some rest now.' He sighs. We certainly need it after that. . And our troubles are hardly over yet.'  
  
  
  
  
  
  


***  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Margarete sleeps more easily than she had expected to. Listening to the soothing breaths of the others around her, she soon realises how tired she is, and sleep takes over quickly.  
  
When she awakes, the others have already left. She gets up from the bed, wondering where they might all have gone to. They're probably just exploring the city. When she looks out of the window, Shanghai appears eerily deserted. . .  
  
Margarete leaves the inn, wondering where they might have got to. Inexplicably, a nervous anxiety is building up in the pit of her stomach.  
  
Her radio intercom beeps as it would if someone was trying to contact her. The sudden sound almost makes her panic, and she is reluctant to answer it. But then, if she didn't, things would only get more complicated. . . She lifts it to her ear, presses the button and listens quietly. Kawashima's clipped, brisk tones echo through.  
  
Agent Malkovich. Why haven't you reported in for so long? It's been almost twenty-four hours.' _Seems like longer._ Margarete's mind flashes with a under possible explanations for this. _. . . Maybe it's a cruel joke. . . Who'd play a joke this this? The Army'd just send someone in to shoot me, wouldn't they?. . And ghosts don't exist. . . Do they. . . Wait. But. . . If Li-Li was, then why not. . ._  
  
Meanwhile, Kawashima continues.   
I think this mission has come to a stage where we must all work together. Agent Malkovich, leave the group now; we don't need you to track them any longer. They're not essential. If you joined Kato and I we could complete this mission so much more effectively. After all, we are ll working for a common cause here, are we not? We have had differences in the past, but I know you are one of the Army's most reliable spies. You haven't failed us once. The three of us will work together on this mission, then so try to reach us as quickly as you can. I expect to see you soon, Margarete.'  
  
  
She lowers the radio from her ear and turns it off, shaking. _She used my real name . . . She never has before. . . _ She looks around her, not knowing what she thinks she'll see, but now she expects that something will happen soon. Worried and jumpy, she keeps glancing back over the ocean, towards where she'd left the bodies, hen laughs at her own stupidity. What_ am I expecting? Zombies or something?_  
  
  
Shanghai is still deserted. _Where is everyone? Maybe Yuri and the others are back at the inn. . . I'd better go and look for them._  
  
She makes her way through the empty streets, each moment of silence bringing another worry. She's shaking a little, though she wouldn't like to admit it to herself.  
  
  
  
At the inn, Margarete wanders through the empty rooms. It's so quiet. . . Like_ a grave. What's going on here?_ Her eye wanders over to the window again, over to where the two corpses must be, somewhere under the water, blue-grey decomposing cadavers, seaweed growing up and tangling into ribs, wrapping around necks. Shuddering at the image coming into her mind, she turns her back to the window.  
  
At that moment she could have sworn she heard, at the very back of her mind, soft and faint, Kawashima's voice call out _Get down! _  
  
  
It's too late though. She hears a tiny like something gathering momentum, just behind her. Margarete whirs around.  
  
  
_Smash.  
  
  
_There's an explosion of glass as a bullet speeds through the window.  
  
_Wait. Where could that come form? No one could aim in this window without me seeing them here.  
  
Unless they were. . .  
  
Ghosts don't have guns!_  
  
  
She was amazed that she managed to have all these shots in the instant before the bullet hit her in the forehead.  
  
  
  
  
  
Margarete's eyes jerk open suddenly. It takes a while for her to register where she is. Tiny parts of the dream she'd just had keep breaking off of it and joining in with her everyday thoughts. Some parts of he dream are blurring with reality. She knows she didn't get phoned by a ghost, or shot in the head, but is everyone here? Is Shanghai really empty now? But Yuri, Alice and Zhuzhen are all still here; and a look out of the window confirms Shanghai is still as bustling and noisy as ever. In retrospect, it had been rather a stupid and far-fetched dream, she thinks. But you can't control what your brain does when you're asleep, and dreams don't give omens for the future.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


***  
  
  
  
  


Sergeant-Major Taro Itakura steps into the small aeroplane that will take him to Shanghai, subdued and quiet, though nervous underneath it. He settles into his seat, and looks out of the window at the small, bleak grey airfield. _Why did they pick me out for this job? What singles me out from the others? When I started I was just a private. I didn't want promotion, but I didn't want trouble either so I just did what they told me as best as I could. And so I kept getting promoted. I was promoted quickly, too. I signed up when I was sixteen. And now I'm a Sergeant-Major. . . I'm only twenty. It wasn't my idea to joint the army anyway, but my mother was keen on it. Her father and brothers were all in the army and she thought it was a noble, respectable thing for a man to do. My father was in the army too, but I never knew much about him. He left my mother when she was pregnant with me. She married again when I was eight and I took the new husband's name too. He was also in the army, predictably. But they never had children. I think she was worried he'd leave her too if she had a child. . . She never really seemed to get over my father leaving her. She must've been so worried, so careful. . . They were married for years and she was still quite young when they met. Of course, all this was in retrospect, pieced together from stories and other peoples' memory, as well as some parts of my own. As a child I was just confused. I still am, but differently. So,I'm an only child and there's no one else to live up to my mother's hopes for her children. I never really had a choice about it._  
  
  
Sir?' the pilot asks, breaking Taro's train of thought. Are you ready to take off now?'  
  
Yes,' he murmours, still mostly lost in his memories. As the plane begins moving forwards, he returns to gazing out of the window and thinking.  
  
  
  
Sometimes I still wonder about who my father was. All I really know is that he was quite high-ranking. Maybe I've met him and never known. He could be just about anyone in the Army. . . I seem to resemble my mother more. I have a birthmark on my arm. That comes down my father's side and it's all I have to tell me any way I might recognise him.  
  
  
The plane pulls up into the air, flattening him backwards against his seat.  
  
  
_When I get to Shanghai, what will I do? How will I know where to go? How can the army be so meticulous in some places and so vague in others?  
  
I haven't ever seen any of these people before. I have descriptions of them, though. I'll have to go by that. After all, Shanghai can't be full of caucasian women with blonde hair. And they do sound like a conspicuous group.  
  
  
  
_Taro realises the plane is landing, and that he must have fallen asleep. Gathering his thoughts, he sees there is a city not so far away. That must be Shanghai, then, he realises.  
  
In an attempt to waken himself up, he stretches out his legs in front of him and immediately wishes he hadn't. Japanese Army aeroplanes were not built with legroom in mind. Annoyed by the bump, the pilot tuts.  
  
Smoothly the plane touches down, though once on the ground it jitters around nervously. Finally it stutters to a halt. . . _ This is it then. . .  
  
  
_As Taro disembarks, bidding the pilot goodbye, he wonders just where to go, how to start. The buildings of Shanghai loom up above, challenging him.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Thank you last chapter's wonderful review people! You would namely be aegis (I don't know about flashbacks. But I will try to get an explanation of her past in somewhere.) and Dessa Rhiannon (Thank You ^^ I got fed up with trying to get the Seraphic Radiance and didn't get it first time round.) Now the fic has more reviews than chapters (or it ought to once this chapter gets a review. (Notice that was not . You have no choice. . . No choice, I say! Review!). And once the reviews overtake the chapters, I'm very happy. It's a sign of not-a total-hopeless-flop- fic! Yay!  
  
. . .  
  
*silence*  
  
*A giant dustball rolls by*  
  
*silence*  
  
Bacon: . . .It IS a hopeless flop._  
  
  
_I might not update this for a while. I have to go and fail a few exams, but after them I think I might also start a new fic about Roger Bacon. It's gonna be LONG! Think you can put up with that? And also I found Breaking Mirrors was going down in a big spiral of crappiness so I had to just take a deep breath and delete it. Does anyone want to know what would have happened? It's just I found that I couldn't write for Alice at all, and I didn't know what to do with the plot except finish it really abruptly. Oops. . .  
  



	10. Eyeless

Part Two, Chapter Four: Eyeless  
  
  
_Insane, am I the only motherfucker with a brain?/ Hearing voices but all they do is complain!/_/ How_ many times have you wanted to kill?/ Everything and everyone -say you'll do it but never will!/ You can't see California without Marlon Brando's eyes!/ I am my father's son/ Cuz he's a phantom, a mystery and that leaves me **NOTHING!!**_**** _/ Slipknot, Eyeless  
  
  
  
  
  
  
_Margarete was confused, to say the least. She had been at the hotel, waiting for Zhuzhen, Alice and Yuri to return, but they'd taken so long. She remembered Zhuzhen saying that he wouldn't be late, so she'd gone to look for them. And when she found them . . .They were in a bar, with three people she hadn't seen before. There'd clearly been a fight- Yuri standing victorious by a man she didn't know,who was dressed in red. Zhuzhen had been kneeling on the floor,disheveled and battered. The two other strangers, she picked up from hurried snatches of conversation, were an old friend of Zhuzhen's, Mr. Zhen, and his daughter Quihua. And as if that scene hadn't been bizarre enough, the group- or Zhuzhen, to be precise- decided they should go back to the hotel, where they could sort things out. What had to be sorted out? What was going on? Margarete assumed she was about to find out, and kept quiet, paying attention to the conversation. Now, back in the hotel room, she realised that not only was Mr. Zhen an old friend of Zhuzhen's, he'd known Yuri's father. . .   
  
  
Yes, when I was in Tongliao, your father saved my life. Ever since then I accompanied him on his travels. We opened a shop in Shanghai because he said we should make this our base of operations. But in fact, he did it out of concern for young Quihua.'  
  
Quihua blushes slightly at the mention of her name. She looks like she'd rather not be here, she feels she's getting in the way. Yuri casts a glance at the ground, saddened by the memories being called up.  
  
  
Each summer, father left the village for work. Then he returned just before winter began. But there was that one year. . .' _Is he trying not to cry?_ . . . A cold winter arrived and snow was falling. . . But no sign of father. . . And instead, what came to our village was. . .' Inwardly Yuri shudders, sickened by the recollections juddering through his head. . . .Hmph. . . Forget it.'  
  
  
  
Mr. Zhen continues his reminiscing. I heard that the Colonel had a young Russian wife and that they had a young son. But. . .I had no idea. . . That they'd be alive. . .'  
  
  
My mother died. . .' Yuri mutters bitterly. He laughs with no happiness whatsoever, a sarcastic, regretful, even spiteful sound. Just my luck I had to outlive them.'  
  
  
How can you say that?' Surely Yuri can't wish he died before his parents, Mr. Zhen thinks. If Quihua died before him. . . And anyway, Yuri himself being alive, wasn't that almost a miracle? I haven't been so thrilled in my life! And how happy Zhuzhen must be as well!'  
  
_Oh, that sounded callous! Zhen, can't you think before you speak? You've really put your foot in it!_  
  
Yuri turns angrily on Zhuzhen. Old geezer. . . You knew everything from square one, didn't you?? But you kept quiet the whole time!! Whether it's about my father or anything else!!'  
  
Zhuzhen is lost for words. What, he wonders, can I say to that? I can see how the kid feels, but. . .  
  
  
Why is everyone so damn secretive?!' Yuri spits accusingly. Why?? Tell me, you stupid old man!!'  
  
Alice blinks into Yuri's face, her eyes wide with concern.  
  
Yuri, stop it! Zhuzhen was agonising over it all this time. He didn't know how to tell you. So, please. . .!' She trails off, unsettled by the cold look in Yuri's eyes.  
  
Zhuzhen knows now he has to say. Tell him right now, no more putting it off. How can he, though, which words? There is no conceivable way to soften the blow. But Yuri needs to know. Too late not to say, at any rate.  
  
I was the one,' Zhuzhen sounds braver than he feels. I was the one who killed Hyuga.'  
  
  
  
Stunned, shocked silence.  
  
Zhuzhen!' Mr. Zhen cries out in horror. _  
  
Bloody hell, _Zhuzhen _killed him? What's Yuri gonna do?   
  
  
_Yuri has gone pale, almost completely white. He's shaking in rage. What did you say?' He knows damn well what Zhuzhen said. Those could be your last words!'  
  
  
I'd better explain, Zhuzhen thinks. Who can blame him for being angry?   
  
I first met Hyuga fifteen years ago here in Shanghai. Hyuga was a special assassin sent by the Japanese Army to China when they realised Dehuai was up to no good. We then spent much time tracking Dehuai. Finally we realised what the Demon's Gate Invocation was. We hit Dehuai's fortress, the Kuihai tower, and finally defeated him. It was a fierce battle. . .'  
  
So then. . .' Yuri sees tiny pieces of the past fit together. The man you told me about in Dalian was. . .   
  
That's right. I was talking about your father. Hyuga put his life on the line and stopped the cursed Valorisation.'  
  
  
Then. . .my father died, eh?' Yuri's still finding it hard to keep his voice even, not break into yelling.  
  
Yuri,' Mr. Zhen pleads. Please forgive Zhuzhen. . . Zhuzhen didn't want to get involved with the same fight your father got pulled into. I can fully understand Zhuzhen's feeling. If i was him I would have done exactly the same thing. . .'  
  
Yuri aims a furious, violent kick at nothing in particular, uttering a cry of frustration. I know!! I know. . .'  
  
Alice puts one hand gingerly on his arm, an attempt to reassure him, soothe him, calm him down. Yuri. . .' she nervously begins.  
  
She never gets any further. It's too much.  
  
Yuri feels trapped. Why is everyone staring at him, he's scared, what the fuck is going on? Zhuzhen you BASTARD! Why did you kill him? oh fuck. . .  
  
  
Something inside was keeping his rage in place, and it's been so bloody frayed lately, it can''t hold all this in!!  
  
Yuri cries out wordlessly in a mixture of claustrophobic panic and irate fury.  
  
Get the fuck away from me!' he shouts. Suddenly his arm whips up, seemingly out of control- _oh, was it really?- _and hits Alice in the face. She staggers backwards. That was a powerful punch.  
  
The room goes silent. Quiet like a fucking grave! Yuri blindly rushes to get out, shoving Margarete roughly out of his way to the door.  
  
  
  
  
Of the stunned group, the first to move is Margarete. She rushes over to Alice, whose nose is gushing copious amounts of blood. Are you OK?' she asks, astounded at what Yuri had done. Alice can't reply, as Margarete is pinching her nose tightly to stop the blood.   
Anyone got a handkerchief or something?' Margarete calls to the remainder of the group. Quaking nervously, Quihua produces one from her pocket and brings it over.  
  
Thanks,' Margarete says distractedly, immediately beginning to wipe the blood from Alice's face. I don't believe that bastard!'  
  
He isn't,' Alice protests weakly. Dizzy, she sits down on one of the beds.   
  
I don't believe you either!' Margarete exclaims, sitting down beside Alice and putting an arm round her. She was trembling like one of these autumn leaves, the ones for which you can't see any explanation as to why they're still attached to their tree. They always fall sometime. Look what he did,' Margarete speaks as gently as she can, it's a challenge to keep her voice level. _How dare Yuri? Alice is the only one who'd **never **wish him harm!_ _OK, so he didn't plan it this way, but. . . God, that kid needs to learn some serious anger management!_ _And how can Alice not be angry?! She hardly even seems to **mind**!!_  
  
He didn't mean it,' Alice murmurs, searching for explanations- she doesn't understand this, but if she stops believing that Yuri is her protector. . .well, she's basically alone in this world. He was overcome with emotions. . .I can see why. . .'  
  
  
Oh, why didn't he hit me then?!' Zhuzhen is exasperated with Yuri. It would have made a lot more sense. . .'  
  
  
I suppose,' muses Mr. Zhen,'that it's just because Alice was closer when he snapped.  
  
Margarete sighs. Where did he go anyway? I'm gonna go and find him. Talk some sense into the idiot.' seemed like unnecessary self-censorship to her, but she didn't want to upset Alice any further. She gives a last reassuring hug to the trembling girl and stands up.  
  
You'd better not mean you're going to shoot some sense into him,' warns Zhuzhen. I don't think it's a good idea that you go at all. Don't you think he'll need some time to himself?'  
  
Yeah, but look, think what he might do!' Margarete protests. I mean, he could be out there right now on a big killing spree or something!'  
  
Zhuzhen sighs. If you must insist on going, be careful!'  
  
Hey, don't worry, I'll be fine!' And with that, Margarete turns and walks to the door. As she leaves she can hear Zhuzhen sigh.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Okay, that was a very short chapter, but I don't have time to type up the remainder of that chapter right now, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to upload *something*, even if it is only three inches of text. I may not upload anything for ages, cos I keep getting exams chucked at my head asking stupid questions like How many ions are in a polar bear and how can you use this to find the area of a chicken's tooth while incorporating trigonometry and standing on your head reciting reflexive French verbs in Italian, oh, and by the way, turn some base metals into gold while you're at it. I really really failed that O_o;;  
  
Bacon: Have I taught you nothing? Any idiot should be able to transform base metals into gold by the age of fourteen!  
  
Yep Bacon, y'know what you taught me? Bring the elements into balance and then will you have it. And *that* makes less sense than some of my fanfics, so don't you start.  
  
  
Bacon: It's a riddle! So only the worthily intelligent shall discover the secret of eternal life!  
  
It REALLY doesn't help the unworthily stupid try to write a fic about you though.  
  
Thank you all the people who reviewed last chapter! aegis, Zhuzhen *did* say He was so handsome, he nearly had ME swooning   
  
. . . O_o;;;;; That. Is. Not. The. Kind. Of. Picture. I. Need. In. my. Head.  
  
Well, you can see how Yuri was. . . Obviously if he totally snapped he'd kill everyone and there'd be no rest of the story, so I had him snap a teensy bit.  
  
  
  
gutterfiend, I already have Itakura's future planned out. You may or may not be right, but his fate was sealed from the minute he came into this story. And as for Breaking Mirrors. . . Yes . . I cannot write for Alice. What was gonna happen was that she found out Ruth had had an affair, and that morris wasn't her real father. That's where the magic came from. Ruth had told Naomi and Naomi was getting a little screwed up about it. . . . But it wasn't going anywhere, so it had to stop.  
  
Nights Mistress, well, like I said, before : O_o;;;; Still. . . It *is* a possibility. Okay, who's gonna write *that* one then? ^^  
  
  
I'm using the little asterisks round a word way too much. I had *really* better give it up. -_-


	11. Spite And Malice

  
  
  
  
  
Part two, Chapter Four: Spite And Malice  
  
  
  
  
  
  
_Jack is all tragic when he stands alone/feeling demonic, harmonic and in a no-go zone/ You look well suited like you came to win/ Lust, spite and malice, your degrees of sin/ Cruising for pity and looking pretty as fuck/ Jacks take your time, queens wish you luck./ Placebo, Spite & Malice_  
  
  
  
Margarete scans the Shanghai streets for any sign of Yuri. It looks like normal. . .  
  
_Well, no killing spree at least. Now, where would he go?_  
  
  
Outside a shop on one corner, she spots a couple of men talking animatedly to each other, gesticulating and glancing around. In particular, they appear to be looking down the road that leads to the harbour.  
  
_Oh, I bet I know what they're talking about. . ._  
  
  
  
She walks over to the shop, confident she can she can eavesdrop without looking suspicious.  
  
Excuse me,' she murmours as she slips pst them, pretending she's going shopping. Once inside, she stares intently at a shelf display near the door, listening intently to what they are saying.  
  
  
. . . And he looked like he was going to the harbour. gods only know what got into him though. . .'  
  
The harbour? There's a lot of odd stuff going on there today. . . Early this morning a strange boat came in, a fishing boat but it was all smashed up, totally wrecked. It's a wonder it was still floating.'  
  
Maybe that guy who just went down was with the Japanese Army. I saw someone in their uniform snooping around earlier.'  
  
  
_What?! The Japanese Army? Oh no. . . What are they doing here, they tracked me down already?  
  
I'd better find Yuri before I do anything else._  
  
  
  
  
Aware that the woman running the shop is eyeing her suspiciously, Margarete goes up to the counter and buys a couple of thera leaves, mind already running down complex alleys of possibility, what if the Army knows I'm here, what if they've figured out what I did, what if Yuri meets someone from the Army. . .what would he do?  
  
  
Trying not to look flustered, she leaves the shop and turns towards the harbour. Once she's round the corner, Margarete starts to speed up, almost running.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
When Margarete reaches the harbour, she sees Yuri, standing at the water's edge. He would appear to be talking angrily to himself, if she didn't have a slightly better idea that he was speaking to something all too real inside his head.   
  
Hey, sonny boy,' she calls, and he turns round. What the hell was that all about?!'  
  
. . .huh?' Yuri sounds tired, like he'd be angry if he could possibly have the energy.  
  
Why'd you hit Alice? If you''d hit just about anyone else in that room it would have made more sense. I would have understood more if you'd hit me. But Alice. . .'  
  
  
Yuri sighs frustratedly. Without a word he turns back to the water.  
  
  
Hey! Aren't you even going to say anything?! Listen, have you any idea what Alice thinks about you?'  
  
He mutters something practically unintelligible. Margarete thinks it went along the lines of I'd expect she hates me, and she assumes that is what he said.  
  
Well, I wouldn't blame her if she did! But she just won't say anything bad about you, even after what you just did! In my opinion, she's bloody mad, but there it is.'  
  
  
Yuri nearly turns round but swiftly decides against it. Margarete, incensed, doesn't want to let this go now, but she's stuck for words, left seething silently, staring irate at Yuri's back.  
  
  
  
_What the hell is he trying to DO here? Is he still out of his tree or does he just not CARE?! I certainly hope he's still mad- if this is him sane we're in serious trouble!_  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Itakura felt lost. Shanghai was a huge city and been sent here to look for five people- in all _these_ thousands! **  
  
Suketani can't have thought this through very well, Perhaps the Army has something else going on right now, something keeping them preoccupied. It's going to be harder than I thought, and I certainly wasn't expecting it to be easy.**  
  
He'd found his way to a hotel, he'd arrived late last night but hadn't had any sleep. Now he was sitting on the narrow bed studying a map of the Shanghai area.  
  
  
**They'd be coming in from . . .here, on a boat, can't have been too long ago. . .I expect they'll still be in the Huayuang area. After all, they'd probably have slept first, then they'll need to decide where to go. And if I were them , I'd probably not hang around in Shanghai. . . Where would they go, though?  
  
  
**Itakura drags his copy of the mission information from his small rucksack and reads it again, despite having already learnt it off by heart. **Never know what you've missed. . .**  
  


Missing persons:  
  
Members of the Army:  
  


Lieutenant Colonel Y. Kawashima  
Sergeant S. Kato  
M. Zelle: A spy for the Army. Code Named: Malkovich.  
  
  


Wanted Criminals:  
  


Alice Elliott [Age 20. Thin blonde Caucasian female. Potentially highly dangerous. Wanted for mass murder.]  
Unknown man. [Young, wiry build, brown hair. Possibly Elliott's accomplice or paramour. Also potentially dangerous and believed to have assisted with the murders.]  
  
It is possible that one or both of these parties have connections to the Anti- Japanese movement.  
  
Last report in: 2200 hours, 22 September, 1913. Made by Lieutenant- Colonel Kawashima. At time of report the party was sailing from Dalian with Shanghai as the planned destination. All party members were present. There has been no contact or sightings since. . . .'  
  
  
**Maybe Elliott and this man have killed the Army members too. It does seem the most likely explanation- but how? Two against three, the three all having guns, fully trained Army members. Maybe Elliott has some secret connection to Dehuai, some hidden plan to make the Army think they'd be destroying him. . . But really, he would destroy them somehow. . . That's all I need, isn't it? If Dehuai is deeply involved with this, it's really serious. I was hoping he hadn't come into it yet.  
Supposing that had happened. Elliott would want to get as far away from Shanghai as possible. She'd leave almost immediately. Maybe she already has. . . But then, I can't go all around the world looking for her right away. It makes sense to search Shanghai first. And if she was going to leave, she'd be at the harbour. There's more chance of being caught if you travel over land. She'll know that. So, the harbour, then. . .  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
**Margarete is thoroughly fed up of Yuri's silence. _What is WRONG with him? I've tried yelling, I've tried talking to him, I've tried almost everything. . ._  
  
Fine. If you're going to be like this, it isn't worth it. You can just stay here.'  
  
She turns to leave. She walks a little distance, trying to keep her walk looking purposeful.  
  
_Hey! Shouldn't he be coming back?! How can he be so wrapped up in himself?!_  
  
All thoughts of using tactics- albeit rather obvious ones- to persuade Yuri to return are forgotten as Margarete spins around.  
  
For God's sake, Yuri!! Snap out of it!!' she hollers at him.  
  
At least she gets a reaction this time. Yuri turns around, anger flashing in his eyes. She might normally think she had just made a mistake, but by now she's just so angry she doesn't regret it. She's desperate to make Yuri see sense.  
  
  
  
Snap out of it??!!' Yuri exclaims. If I had any fucking CHOICE I woulda snapped out of it long ago! You think I bloody WANT all this?! I've got some crazy voice babbling in my head, malice, fusion souls, and Fox-fucking- Face, and you tell me to snap out of it??!!'  
  
_? Fox- fucking- Face?? (I assume that expletive is not normally included- but you never can tell with Yuri. . .) What the hell is that? What's he on about now? I don't suppose it's a good time to ask. . .  
  
  
  
_But then, I suppose you wouldn't understand. So, just leave me alone. Get away from me. Don't come back.'  
  
Yuri pronounces these last sentences with such flat hatred that Margarete suddenly feels chilled; cold right through. She isn't going to go away, though.   
  
_If Yuri is just going to give up- and, let's face it, it sounds like he might- **everything **so far has been in vain. If he's going to give up, I may as well still be working for the Army, Alice may as well still be in Bacon's captivity, Ben Hyuga died for nothing. We need everyone here, everyone that's a part of this. We can't have him drop out just because the voices in his head are yelling at him! No way is she going to let him give up now.  
  
  
_Look! Back in that hotel, Alice is worrying about you. You just hit her and ran out but she is still worrying abut you. Zhuzhen is blaming himself for what just happened- even though he didn't do anything-'  
  
He killed my father!! I'd call THAT something!!'  
  
Margarete loses the little grasp she still had on her temper. _Can't he even try a little? Is he even willing to come back at all?! He MUST be!_  
  
Yeah, and what would you have done?' she screams. If you'd been in Zhuzhen's place fifteen years ago, what would YOU have done differently?!!'  
  
Yuri doesn't know, of course. He can't admit it now, that there hadn't been any alternative. How can he say that he'd have killed his own father? Surely there was an alternative! There's always more than one way to do something, isn't there? Isn't there? But. . .what else. . .if he'd been there. . . He can feel a barrage of voices babbling in his mind, telling him **you would have done that you know that's what you would have done so why don't you fucking admit it you bloody coward but that won't happen to you most likely you'll be the bastard needing killed it's in the family you know this madness you have the same fate lined up for you whatever you do so don't even pretend you can help them or save that girl you will drag them all down with you don't make it any worse for them just let them get on with their lives and stop fucking them up you stupid cunt!!'  
  
  
**It sounds like a babble of many voices but they're all the same voice really, all Fox- Face's voice. His father. . .the voices descend into shrieks of pain like dying. Margarete cannot hear a word of this and she's still angry with him.  
  
**  
  
**_Well? _What would you have done, you hypocrite?!'  
  
  
He's losing his sense of reality,descends into the shrieking pit where his mind must stay when some other has control. A dazzling flash of dark on light, Margarete's scream of surprised horror comes through a blanket of headache, Yuri is Death Emperor.  
  
  
  
  


***  
  


Itakura arrives at the harbour, and he stops dead in his tracks. There's a woman standing there, arguing with a man. They fit to perfection, the descriptions of Agent Malkovich and Elliott's unknown accomplice. He watches, what's going on? **Wha- - ? He's. . . He's a. . . I heard about people like this once. I heard there was one in the Army. There were stories about a man named Hyuga who could do this. . . .I had assumed they were exaggerations, but this is exactly . . . . It's amazing . . . . He actually . . . He turned into a demon!**  
  
This demon looks like it might lunge forward at the woman, he's ready to jump in with his gun. It doesn't, though, it forcibly straighten itself and holds itself in check. He watches in awe and wonder as the demon bends down, crying out in pain, clutching its head, and in a bizarre blast of brightness, dissolves into human form again. This potentially dangerous human form with a wiry build, brown hair and eyes. He has imprinted this information on his brain. Now it's personified in front of his eyes. What is he to do. . .?  
  
The woman must be Agent Malkovich. He had thought it at first sight, and the more he watches her the more he became sure. Her army issue gun, held in a holster at her hip, made him certain; this was Agent Malkovich. As far as he knew, she was on his side. But this demon man was not. And he must be a formidable enemy. . . .  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
There is more of that chapter, but my computer is all screwed up and has decided it will crash every so often just so I don't get complacent with the damn thing actually working. So I'll just put the last bit of this one on the start of the next one. These lyrics don't have a great deal to do with anything right now but I was very stuck so I put in some kind of omen of future chapters style ones. *sigh* It's a shame they don't have search by subject on lyrics web sites (actually, that probably wouldn't help. What would I search for, spies and harmonixers?). But I've been searching for song words through looking at random bands/singers, if I just stuck to my own CD collection it'd get very repetitive. . . . and I probably don't have the best taste in music anyway. . . . I tried to use music I'd at least heard for the early ones, most of these tracks I do have so far, but certain chapters  
don't fit anything. . . .damn me an' my starting gimmicks I can't finish. I have no discipline, either, I keep starting random stories with the vague ambition of writing something dark, but I'm not gonna upload any of them cos they all suck. Also keep meaning to write original fic, I have the first chapter of about three and then I realise the ideas will never work. So then I go back to the angst poetry, and by now I'm sure the various sites I post angst poetry on are well and truly fed up of my spraffin' on about whatever I decide I'm gonna angst about today. . . . . . . But it's all I can write! Just goes to show I have no imagination I suppose, seen as it's all at least semi autobiographical/ Mary- Sueing. (Do you call it that in angst poetry?!) Yep, my english teacher's verdict on my writing is that I can structure sentences okay, but I can't actually write a decent plot with my structured sentences. So I meant to go away and not come back until I figured out how to do plots, but as I think I have already said I have no willpower. I'm gonna have to nail my n=hands to a table to stop me writing or something. . . . . .  



	12. Dave's Possessed Hair

Coffee With Bullet  
Chapter 5  
_  
  
  
Ever get the feeling no one's got your back/Caught up in themselves livin' lies besides the fact/Somehow you're going on an opposite track/As we recover from another social heart attack/ _Sum 41, Dave's Possessed Hair/It's What We're All About  
  
  
  
Margarete stares at the newly-human Yuri.  
  
_Did he mean to kill me? Even for a second? No, I don't believe he would. He **couldn't. **He meant nothing like it, it's just that his brain lost control.  
  
Is this what Alice felt when he hot her?  
  
Yuri, we thought, was the one who held us together. Now when he's falling apart himself, we can't bear the thought he wants to hurt us.  
  
And now I don't trust my own thoughts.  
  
Maybe I only believe his mind lost control because part of me can see it's hopeless. I don't want to believe he hates us, so I blame these things in his head.  
  
Just like Alice did._  
  
_So who knows whose fault it is? It could be anybody's fault. It's probably everybody's fault.  
And if it's everybody's fault then it may as well be nobody's fault.  
  
If we're all to blame, I can't see any point in blaming anyone at all.  
  
It's an unhappy coincidence, and the situation has been made worse by our own separate traits. . .  
  
It's a lot more my fault than I'd thought, isn't it?  
  
I still haven't convinced myself I trust my **own** thoughts. So how can any of **them** trust **me**?  
Maybe they don't. But I trust **them**, and they seem to trust me.  
  
I trust myself- and everyone else- less and less as I think.  
  
I have to trust someone, don't I? Oh, I do trust them, I **do**. It's just stupid little thoughts saying I don't. So, I don't trust my thoughts but-  
  
What the bloody hell else is there to trust?  
Absolutely nothing. Well, we're all alone now. But who's ?  
Alice, Zhuzhen, Yuri and me.  
  
I think we can do this together now.  
  
  
  
_Yuri stares back at Margarete. Little memories begin to return, fragments of what just happened. They don't make a lot of sense to him.  
  
**The hotel room, Zhuzhen told me about. . .  
. . . 15 years ago.**  
  
He still hates to think the words his father's death. It makes everything seem so cold, so harsh, so unforgiving.  
  
His father is dead.  
  
Dead is such an ugly word, he finds it conjures up images of soulless, maggoty corpses. Empty, cadavers, no person left at all.  
  
He can't bear to think of hs father like that. When he remembers his father from his childhood he was warm, protective, laughing. He can picture his father's face smiling- although now he isn't sure whether these memories are a false picture built from the very little he has very been told about his father. He wouldn't want to remember bad things, would he? There is one time he can remember perfectly, and that time his father's face is apologetic.  
  
**He didn't want to leave, but he had to.  
What was so fucking important that he had to leave THEN? Why then? If only he'd stayed, none of this would have happened! He'd have been there when. . . he'd have been there when. . .  
  
No use in all this wishing. He really did have to go. If he hadn't gone it would have worked out worse. Couldn't this all have been so much worse?  
How the fuck could it get any worse?**  
  
He knows he has to come to terms with this. All he'd been doing was hiding the fact from himself, refusing to accept it for years.  
  
**After all, it's not the fact he's dead that's a shock. I knew that already. It's who killed him. And how it happened, the _way _there was no alternative, no way to avoid his death. It should be a comfort, I know that, but it _isn't. _  
Why did it have to be Zhuzhen? Why did it have to be a friend who killed him?  
A friend to me and to my father.  
It had to happen.  
Accept it.   
  
And if I can't do that, it's time I stopped thinking about it. Stop thinking about who I blame. Stop blaming everyone. Stop blaming anyone. Stop thinking for now. There's so much else to sort out, I can't afford to let my demons out. When this is all over, then I'll decide what I think and whose fault it is.  
Just keep a lid on it for now, for everyone's sake, or I could do anything. Maybe it's too late. . . What did I do, back at the hotel?  
  
**He struggles to come up with a coherent recollection. The memories have shattered and scattered, spilt all over his mind. It's hard to find the right bits and put them back together in the correct order.**  
**_  
  
_**I was afraid, I was panicking. Everyone was staring at me, like they wanted a speech or something. I had no idea what to do. I wanted to be alone. I wanted to be alone in my own head as well. I could hardly hear over Fox-Face. I wanted to scream.  
. . . And then Alice touched my arm. I couldn't bear to be touched. I couldn't bear to be near her either. I was furious at everyone, I knew she was the one I had no reason to be angry at. This made some part of me even more angry because it wanted to blame whoever was closest. Another part of me hated that part. I was so confused, frustrated, I freaked out, I. . .  
  
. . . I hit Alice? Did I? It seems like what I'd do then, but I can't remember a lot after that. Blurred lines and shaking. The cold sea air and I was on the docks with an argument inside my mind.  
  
I've really fucked up now! How could I hit her? I must seem like the worst kind of bastard.  
Am I?   
  
**  
Margarete watches Yuri's face, the changes in emotion, and Yuri is the first of the pair to speak.  
  
Margarete. . . Back in that hotel room. . . What did I do? Did I hit Alice?'  
  
_He doesn't **remember**? What goes on in his bloody head?!  
  
_Yes,' she replies, still angry and a little cold. You did hit her.'  
  
Yuri swears under his breath. . . . And then . . . What did she say? What happened after that?'  
  
Well, _you _just ran off. Alice had an awful nosebleed. Still she _never _said a word against you. I think she just blames whatever's in your head. She wants to think that _you _ are different from all that. She wants to be protected by you. She _needs _ to be, all things considered. Are you going to do that?' Now Margarete sounds severe, though secretly she's still wondering jut how much of this she is to blame for.  
  
Hell,' Yuri murmours, staring at his feet. How can she still. . . I mean. . . .' He can feel the slight beginning of the headache that heralds his mysterious voice making contact with him. he knows what it's going to tell him. Before it gets the chance to, he reaches a decision. At this he raises his head and looks straight at Margarete. Yeah, sure I will.'  
  
She eyes him sternly. You'd better go and _tell _her then.'  
  
  
***  
  
  
Itakura slips into a hidden corner a couple of streets away from the harbour. He's in an narrow, dirty alley, seemingly deserted. Pulling out his radio intercom, he bashes in the number for Suketani and waits.   
  
Lieutenant Suketani? This is Sergeant Major Itakura reporting from Shanghai.'  
  
  
So?' Suketani sounds irritable and distracted. Have you located the group yet?'  
  
Yes. . . Well, most of them. Malkovich and Elliott, and the man- his name is Yuri. They're staying in a hotel in the Huayuan district. Still no sign of Kawashima and Kato.'  
  
Suketani sighs in annoyance.   
  
Well, observe the group. Find out what happened. . . . And Itakura. . .'  
  
Yes?'  
  
The Army has decided that this situation provides an ideal opportunity to. . . kill two birds with one stone, as it were. . .'  
  
How?' **_Two birds with one stone? What on earth is he talking about? This had better not have anything to do with. . .  
  
_**The Army feels this group should be incorporated into the ongoing struggle against Dehuai, if it is at all possible. They would certainly be very useful. Now, if Kato and Kawashima are present anywhere, tis ought to be easy enough. If not, perhaps Malkovich is still on our side. If she is not. . . Oh, just do your best, I'm sure you're capable. If you have not done so already, it would be best if you got some new clothes- wandering around wearing the uniform is bound to get you noticed. What you have to do is get the group to go to the Temple at Wuhan. Dehuai has settled there, and it looks long term. We'll have troops there too, of course, but you'll be informed what to do next when you get there.'  
  
**_Wuhan? How the hell will I persuade them to go to Wuhan?! This is insane! Suketani can't have thought this through at all!_**  
  
yes, sir.'  
  
He hears an intake of breath, as if Suketani was about to say something else. But before he speaks, there is a click and the line goes dead._  
  
  
  
***  
  
  
  
_Margarete and Yuri make their way back to the hotel, Yuri quiet and awkward. In his head, he tries planning what he will say to Alice, Zhuzhen, or anyone, and he draws a complete blank.  
**Just have to wait and see what happens. As usual.  
**As they approach the door to the room, a low buzz of of conversation is clearly audible from behind it. Even so, it proves impossible for Margarete to make out the words.  
  
Yuri opens the door and all voices cease as instantly as they would if someone had flicked a switch. Yuri casts an apprehensive glance about the group. Zhuzhen and Mr. Zhen had been talking, probably about yuri, judging by their immediate fall into silence at his entry. Zhuzhen looks at him in a faintly apologetic manner, but stays silent.  
  
Alice is sitting on one of the beds, near the wall. She is talking with Quihua in a voice barely above a whisper- presumably for the purpose of preventing others from overhearing. Yuri gestures with one hand to Quihua, signaling that he would like a chance to talk to Alice alone.  
  
  
Leaving the two to get on with their conversation, Margarete and Quihua both move over to the opposite corner of the room, where Zhuzhen and Mr. Zhen stand.  
  
Do you think Alice is gonna be OK?' Margarete murmours to Quihua. She glances across the room. Yuri is making some excuse or other. Margarete wonders what it is. _I'm not sure that I lost control would cut it. He doesn't **have **much of an excuse, really. He has to count on her being forgiving about him losing his temper. She will be, I expect. But if I was her he'd be needing scraped off the wall right about now. . .  
  
_I think she'll be fine,' Quihua breathes back. But. . . does Yuri do this sort of thing often? I am worried about her. She seems to trust him so much.'  
  
She's a very trusting person. . . But no, this is the first time he's ever done anything like that, as far as I know. He'd better not do it again, or. . .' Margarete sighs. I don't know. See, she has to trust him, because if she doesn't. . . Well, he's protecting her from-'  
  
Roger Bacon, and Dehuai?'  
  
How much has he _said_?' Margarete asks incredulously, waving her hand in Zhuzhen's vague direction.  
  
I don't know if I was meant to hear or not,' Quihua explains. He was talking to Father. I don't think Alice noticed- or at least, she didn't seem to. But I really couldn't help hearing. . .'  
  
Margarete shakes her head. Well, I don't mind, you won't tell anyone. It's just that I hope Zhuzhen will keep his voice down in future- anyone could be listening.'  
  
At this ominous statement Quihua blinks alarmedly.  
  
Oh, it should be fine. Don't worry about it. . .'  
  
Margarete keeps flicking her eyes over to Yuri and Alice, trying to figure out what's going on between them. Yuri is speaking softly, his head bent close to Alice's. All Margarete can make out from lip-reading are stock phrases such as I'm sorry and never again, accompanied by a rueful shake of the head. After a longer than usual, totally incomprehensible sentence, Yuri suddenly leans in and hugs Alice. She nervously flinches and reflexively draws back, startled. Yuri quickly withdraws, aware he'd better not push it at this delicate stage. Margarete hopes that they're both unaware she saw that.  
  
Did Zhuzhen say anything else?' she asks Quihua, who nods.  
  
He said that if Dehuai is indeed attempting the same thing he tried fifteen years ago, he thinks he'll go to Wuhan after a man called Master Xifa-'  
  
_What?' _Margarete turns around and taps Zhuzhen on the arm, disturbing him from his hushed conversation with Mr. Zhen. Zhuzhen! Who's Master Xifa! What are you-  
  
  
Yuri and Alice both look over at this, and Margarete realises she must have spoken more loudly than she'd intended. _Damn! I'm gonna have to learn to keep quiet too- the Japanese Army could be here, that guy earlier said he saw one of them. No harm done now, I suppose. . .  
_  
_  
_Who _is _Master Xifa?' a confused Alice echoes- she thinks she's missed something from an earlier conversation. A look around at the other's faces tells her no one understands, hardly even Zhuzhen. . .  
  
  
The two subgatherings of people are still at opposite corners of the room, and in anticipation of Zhuzhen's explanation they gravitate towards each other, slowly and still a little awkwardly. Yuri doesn't know how the others feel towards him- is his outburst forgiven, or, more likely, forgotten? Or are they still looking at him warily, watching out of the corners of their eyes, keeping their distance just a little more, adding a thin, cold layer of subtle mistrust between himself and them?  
  
**How much do they think about me that they can't tell me? What did they say about me when I wasn't there? Did revenge ever cross their minds? Alice can't trust me now, can she? Even though she said she forgave me. . . If I was her I'd fucking _hate _me. If I was her I might even leave. But Alice can't go, can she? If she's out there on her own, Dehuai'll get to her and she'll be dead. So it isn't like she has a choice. Maybe she feels trapped. Maybe she's afraid of me. The only reason she's here is it's me, or Dehuai. . .  
  
_Take comfort in the fact you're not quite so bad as Dehuai- yet,' _**remarks Fox-Face. **_Stop feeling so bloody sorry for yourself. You brought all this on yourself anyway. It's your own fault.'_  
  
I know. I know.  
  
  
  
**Master Xifa,' Zhuzhen is saying when Yuri pulls himself out of his train of thought, protects the underground temple at Wuhan. Fifteen years ago, Colonel Hyuga placed the Votive Picture in the care of Master Xifa, thinking it would be safe there. It's one of the Gods Of The Four Directions. . . . And if Dehuai is going to try the Valorisation again. it'll be Wuhan he goes to.'  
  
So we have to go to Wuhan?' asks Margarete.  
  
Zhuzhen nods solemnly. Yuri,' he says with the serious air of one who knows they are making a historically important announcement. Are you prepared to follow in the footsteps of your father, to go to Wuhan and defeat Dehuai?'  
  
  
**_You can't,' _**Fox-Face spits. **_You're far too weak. Don't even try. There's no way you could ever do this.'  
  
_**I will do it!' retorts Yuri, out loud. Margarete raises one eyebrow minutely, wondering why he sounded so spiteful. _At least the kid seems to have got his head screwed on right again.  
  
_Zhuzhen looks around at the assembled group.   
  
So we're going to Wuhan. . . Yuri, Alice, Margarete, and me.'  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
_  
  
  
  
_Thank you everyone who reviewed the last two chapters: aegis, Nights Mistress and gutterfeind for chapter 10; aegis, leels and kimgrasshopper for 11.   
  
  
I forgot to put the review thingy on Chapter 11, because it was three in the morning and I hadn't slept for four days. That is a pathetic excuse, but if I was going to lie about it, I would make up something better, like half the author note got abducted by aliens. . I should shut the hell up now. . . .  
  
  
  
  
  
_  
_


	13. One More Robot

Malkovich, Chapter Thirteen  
  
  
_Unit three thousand twenty one/ Is warming, makes a humming sound/ When its circuits duplicate emotions/ And a sense of coldness detaches/ One more robot learns to be/ Something more than a machine/ When it tries the way it does/ Makes it feel like it can love/ Cause it's hard to say what's real/ When you know the way you feel/ _One More Robot/ Sympathy 3000-21, The Flaming Lips  
  
  
  
  
  
Itakura stood close to the hotel room door, listening intently. **  
  
So it seems like they're going to Wuhan anyway. . . It's a perfect coincidence. What should I do now? Follow them? It's about all I can do, isn't it?  
  
**At the sound of footsteps approaching the door, Itakura quickly sidesteps and hurries al little way down the corridor, praying he looks like a regular hotel guest.   
The first one to leave the room is Malkovich. She looks down the corridor, away from him, as if she was suspicious.   
  
**Some one can't have told her, can they? Who would _know_?  
  
  
**  
  
  
  
For a second, Margarete's eyes rest on Itakura.   
  
_He does look suspicious. He looks as if he's trying not to be looked at.  
  
_By now, the others had filed out of the hotel room behind her.  
  
_Any normal person'd be at least a little curious about an odd group like us.  
  
_Itakura is walking down the corridor away from them, consciously trying not to go too slow or too fast, trying not to have any conspicuous traits and above all, trying not to look nervous.  
  
  
_He's almost certainly that army guy, and not a very experienced one either. I'd doubt he's ever done a spying mission like this before.  
  
  
  
_Margarete lets the others get a little ahead of her, until they're just out of the hotel. Mr Zhen is proposing a good luck drink in his pub- on the house, of course.  
  
  
Sensing her opportunity, Margarete announces she might have left some stuff in the room, and arranges to meet the others in the pub as soon as she's made sure.  
  
The moment she is inside the building, she hurries up the stairs and along the corridor. As she'd expected, Itakura is still there, planning his next move.  
  
  
She's almost relieved that he looks so frightened when he sees her. Her mind is running ahead in time, trying to work out what to do with him.  
  
  
_I think shooting him is a complete write-off. Not in the middle of Shanghai. And even if this was in the middle of nowhere. . . .   
  
I don't 'think I could.  
  
  
_The realisation washes quickly through her mind like cold water.  
_  
  
After. . . After that time on the boat, it seems **nobody **is just a nobody. Looking at it that way makes it a hell of a lot harder to just shoot them. I could kill him if I **really**__had to. . . . If he was some one I really hated. . . But this guy's just a poor bugger doing his job, none of this is decided by him. . . . .   
  
But I'll have to keep an eye on him. Can't have him reporting back to the army or anything. And we have to get out of Shanghai and go to Wuhan, pretty damn soon.  
  
  
. . . Take him with us?  
  
  
  
_Look, what's your name?' she asks him.  
  
Itakura,' he says and immediately regrets not having given a false name. ** Gods, why can't I think before I speak?  
  
**What's your mission?' She doesn't think it's worth pretending either of them doesn't know what's going on.  
  
What are you talking about?' Clearly he doesn't share this viewpoint.  
  
  
You know damn well what I'm talking about!' exclaims a frustrated Margarete. There isn't time to hang about here, especially if he's going to act so stupid!  
  
In a quick snap of a movement, she grabs her pistol and points it at his face.  
  
I won't shoot you if you tell me. Why are you here?'  
  
Itakura has no way of knowing she wouldn't shoot him anyway. Margarete steps purposefully forwards, her gun now inches away from Itakura's face. Tell me''  
  
  
  
  
  
**Okay. Say I don't. She shoots me. If I do. . . Then what? She's probably lying. If she's going to shoot me anyway I shouldn't tell her. If I don't tell her and she shoots me then I'll never know.  
  
  
  
I'm going to have to take a chance and tell her. I'm no use to the Army dead, after all. But if I'm dead, will it matter? I don't know. . .  
  
**  
  
I haven't got all day!' snaps Margarete. Itakura tenses, ready to duck, in case she is lying. In case she tries to shoot him anyway.  
  
  
My mission. . .' he begins shakily. . . . is. . . to locate the group you were with, find out what was going on. . . Try to persuade the remainder of the group to go to Wuhan.   
  
  
How convenient for you that we were going there anyway. What were you going to do when we got to Wuhan?'  
  
I don't know-'  
  
Margarete jabs her gun a little closer to his face.  
  
No, really, I don't! There's Army troops at the Temple! It was going to involve killing Dehuai somehow. I didn't get told anything else.'  
  
She believes him. He doesn't know the first thing about spying, and there's real fear on his face. Margarete sighs.  
  
I suppose you can kinda guess by now what happened to Kawashima and Kato,' she murmours, almost an aside. Then, suddenly stern again, They were much better trained than you, remember. If you don't want the same to happen to you, you will do exactly what say.'  
  
Itakura feels a hard, cold ball of nauseous nerves at the base of his throat. What do I have to do?'  
  
  
I can't really afford to let you out of my sight now, can I? So you are going to come to Wuhan with us. At Wuhan. . . well. . . We'll see. To explain your presence to the rest of the group. . . I don't know. Start thinking fast, because what I do know is that certain members of the group would be sorely tempted to rip you limb from limb if they thought you were from the Army and planning on arresting anyone. _Especially _if you were planning on arresting Alice Elliott. She's innocent, by the way.'  
  
Itakura could barely keep up with all the new information she was throwing at him.   
  
She's innocent. . .? What about the man she was with. . . .?'  
  
Yuri? He's . . . wasn't involved in the train murders either.'  
  
Itakura opens his mouth to ask who _was _responsiblethen, but Margarete speaks again before he has time to talk.  
  
Now', she continues. I know you're still on the Army's side, don't trust me, think I'm lying, think I'm gonna shoot you the minute you turn your back. I don't really blame you and frankly I don't care. Trust is not an issue here. There isn't time. What _is _an issue is that if I find any funny behaviour from you- like reporting in- before we get to Wuhan, you're going to wish you'd never been born. Got that, sonny boy?'  
  
Itakura nods, dumbstruck.   
  
  
In fact, best be on the safe side.' Margarete holds out her free hand. Give me your intercom.'  
  
He doesn't know what else he could possibly do. Shaky, he pulls it out of his pocket and hands it to her. Margarete slips it in an inside pocket of her coat.  
  
Good. When we meet the other members of the group, you are. . .' Margarete still can't think of a way to explain him to the group, but they've already taken so long. She'll think something up off the top of her head, she's good at improvising when she really has to.  
Thinking it's now safe to do so, she returns her gun to its holster. Okay, just keep your mouth shut until you know who you're meant to be. Now, c'mon, and do try to act like you've got some idea what you're doing. .'  
  
  
Remember,' she says as they make their way down to Mr Zhen's pub. this is all in the Army's best interests. We _are _going to defeat Dehuai anyway, but I expect you already knew that from when you were listening in on our conversation earlier.'  
  
She hadn't been dead certain that he had heard, but chances were he'd at least tried to listen in at one point. By the look on his face, it's clear he had, and still thought she didn't know about it.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Margarete enters the pub first and immediately sees the rest of the group, the only customers. They're crowded around one of the small tables near to the door. Yuri greets her with a call of So you finally decided to join us, huh? We were beginning to think -   
  
He stops in mid sentence as he catches sight of Itakura. Noticing that Yuri is staring at something, the others follow his line of sight. Soon, though, they all end up staring at Margarete. They're certain she has more of an explanation than that confused-looking guy she seems to have dragged along. When Margarete realises they're all looking at her, she can't help but find the situation inexplicably funny. She suppresses a grin.  
  
This is Itakura . . . He's doing research for a book on Taoist Mysticism, and he . . . couldn't help overhearing that we were going to Wuhan . . . which is where he's going too . . . So he mentioned it to me when I went back to the hotel . . . and . . . She shrugs. I said he might as well come to Wuhan with us, cause we were bound to meet him on the way, he'd've ended up practically following us.'  
  
The group takes this in with almost cynical looks. In immediate retrospect, it was a pretty crap story. They don't know how to voice their mistrust to her, or anyone else, though, so they keep quiet. Alice retains her usual trusting expression, and Margarete wonders what she really thinks. Surely it's impossible for one person to be so unquestioning?  
  
Zhuzhen rises and announces he'll go to the bar for another round of drinks, pointedly asking Margarete to help him carry them back to the table.  
  
As soon as they're halfway across the room, Zhuzhen mutters Why is he really here?'  
  
Okay. . . um. . . he's sent by the Japanese Army- hey, don't lose your temper until you've heard the whole story- he was listening outside the hotel room door earlier so I didn't think it was safe to let him go.'  
  
Zhuzhen stares at Margarete in disbelief. How much does he _know_?'  
  
About what he's doing? Surprisingly little. About what _we're _doing? I don't know exactly. The most he could know by now is. . . everything. But I doubt that. Almost feel sorry for the guy, he's just-'  
  
Zhuzhen shoots her a warning look.   
  
. . . Okay. We'll just have to get rid of him around Wuhan somehow. The Army wants Dehuai defeated as well, so they think we'll be useful for that, But afterwards, I think they'll want most of us shot. Obviously if one of their soldiers is trailing us, we're screwed.'  
  
The Adept sighs. How does having one of their soldiers accepted into our group make the situation any better?'  
  
I have his intercom,' Margarete announces brightly. He can't contact the Army. I think I have him pretty much under control.'  
  
That isn't a great comfort coming from you.'  
  
Hey, don't be so negative! Miss Spy Genious, remember. I'll sort this one out no bother, just you see. '  
  
Zhuzhen merely raises his eyebrows and begins to walk back over to the table, carrying some of the drinks. Margarete picks up the remainders from the bar and follows them, growing uncertainty in her mind.  
  
  
_What will we do at Wuhan?  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
_Itakura sits awkwardly in the midst of the group gathered around the table. He observes everyone there in turn. There's a pair who seem to be running this bar, and they look related. Father and daughter seems to be their most likely relationship. There's the man who turned into a demon, messy-haired, tired-eyed, and with several bruises of varying shades on his face. On one side of him, a grey-haired old man who carries an Adept's staff. Next to him is Agent Malkovich, or Margarete, which seems to be her real name. Itakura is sitting between Margarete and Elliott . . . Alice. The murderess. Earlier, Margarete had said she was innocent. Looking at her, he finds that easy to believe. She's pale-skinned, fragile-looking, doesn't seem physically possible of doing all that damage.   
  
  
**But Margarete was probably lying. Perhaps Alice persuaded that man . . . I think his name is Yuri . . . to do the actual killing for her.  
  
**Itakura watches Alice's face with a sidewards glance. Maybe he would see some manipulative tone in her eyes.  
  
He can't see anything like that. Beguiling naivety, but nothing darker. Of course, she could just be acting. With an expression like that, Alice could persuade anyone to do anything.  
  
From his observations of her, Itakura thinks Alice looks almost as out of her depth here as he is.  
  
**Well obviously she's been here longer, and she knows these people better . . . but she still doesn't seem comfortable with them. That can't be a good sign.   
  
  
**Over the course of the conversation- carefully skirting around any details of the group's main plans- Itakura finds himself constantly flicking his eyes to the side to catch another glimpse of Alice. He tries to be as subtle as he can, and silently prays she hasn't noticed him looking. He finds something about her naive, innocent air irresistibly mesmerising.  
  
He wonders where the marks on her face came from, though. Around her nose, it's red and swollen, as if someone had punched her there recently.  
  
**Why would someone punch her? Either she isn't as innocent as she looks, and she started the fight herself, or someone was . . . What? Trying to keep her quiet, maybe, keeping her in line by hitting her.  
  
Maybe she wasn't the murderess after all. Maybe she's being used as a scapegoat. By who?  
  
  
**Itakura's eyes move to Yuri, the man he'd previously thought of as her accomplice. He looks tired and resigned, but angry underneath it. Alice appears to have been watching Yuri's face as intently as Itakura had been watching hers.   
  
Occasionally, during the conversation- Itakura's missed most of it- Yuri's face will break into a wide, angular grin, although the laughter in his eyes fades before the smile does. At this, Alice looks at his face confused, intimidated, but almost adoring- **what on Earth? **- but certainly not like she hates him, like she would if it had been him that hit her.  
  
  
**So who was responsible for the train murders? Is it even somebody here? What's going on with Yuri? Is Alice really that innocent? Or does she even want to _be _here? What the hell have these people all got to do with each other? This isn't as simple as it looked . . .  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
**Now usually it's my fault it takes three hundred years between chapters, but this time it really is not my fault. My brother was trying to throw a cushoin at my head, missed by a mile and knocked coffee all over my notebook. . He will be lucky if he lives till his tenage years.  
  
Thanks for reviewing last chapter, gutterfiend (_thank you_), Leels (_Death Emperor is a far, far weider thing to fancy than Roger Bacon_), Kim (_again, thank you_), and aegis (_Snip-snip, huh? That's giving me plot ideas..._)  
  
  
This is the most reviews I've ever had on a fic before, I think. =D Yay! *goes hyper*


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